Behind Closed Doors
by StarvingLunatic
Summary: AU. Kikyo is married and she's in love with Sesshomaru. Well, what's the problem? She's not married to Sesshomaru.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own these characters. Y'all know that by now.

This rating may go up in a few chapters. This is also a present day AU.

Behind Closed Doors

1: Living the life

Sesshomaru silently decided that he hated his job. It was a reoccurring theme within his mind. He just really, honestly, and truly hated his job. Well, why have a job that he loathed? Because he enjoyed having a steady paycheck, which many people could not comprehend. Sesshomaru had a trust fund that could feed him and a building of people for a few lifetimes, so it was not like he required money. He was also set to inherit his father's business, along with most of the great dog demon's lands. So, most people did not understand why Sesshomaru bothered to work at all, especially doing a job that he disliked.

The noble dog demon simply liked being self-reliant. He liked to be able to do things for himself. He wanted to pave his own way; not to say that he was not going to take over his father's things when the time came, but at the moment he was a mature adult demon and he believed that he needed to act as such. So, he had a horrible, horrible job, just like any adult would have.

What did the glorious Sesshomaru do to bring in the dollars? He worked for an advertising firm; he had too much education in his opinion to have even considered taking such a job. In other words, he did not think that he should have even had the qualifications to do such work, but it seemed that he had been in school long enough, so that when he spotted an opening, he could take it. What had he been thinking, he always asked himself.

No one would guess that he actually hated his job as he did it so well. They would admit that they did not understand why he did his job so well with his antisocial personality and everything; how did he figure out what people liked? But, he seemed to know how to handle his accounts and he had plenty of clients. He still disliked his job.

So, why do a job that he despised? Well, he was an artist at heart and trained as such. He mostly painted and he wanted to practice his art as often as he could. He occasionally created something worth hanging in a gallery and he had a few works gracing galleries with their presences. He was often commissioned by demon nobility to do works for them. But, he learned that such an existence would not yield the steady paycheck that he carved. So, he went somewhere that he could get some practice in while gathering a stable income.

Most of his work dealt with graphic designs. He had a dynamic style that caught his clients' attention and they believed that the style would grab consumers' attention as well. Sesshomaru was a hot commodity in graphic designs.

Of course, his job required more than just coming up with eye-popping designs sometimes and he was mediocre at best in the other aspect of his work. He had to come up with slogans on occasion to go with his designs and he found that to be extremely irksome, especially since he typically did not know what was catchy or if anything was popular. He was pretty much anti-popular culture.

Usually, he cheated it when it came to his job in his opinion. He listened to his clients and what they wanted for their account, no matter how stupid the idea seemed. He then took their ideas and came up with several different pictures from their notions. He then got outside help on the slogans and also what design worked best; he called in his siblings or his stepmother.

Sesshomaru tended to act like he did not value anyone's opinion, especially not his wretched simpleton of a half-brother. But, in truth, when it came to normal things, he went with what his idiotic and often childish brother thought. So, he tended to show Inuyasha his designs and let the bigmouth do what he did best, express his stupid opinion very loudly about slogans that went with his favorite designs. He figured that with Inuyasha being like the average moron on the street, then whatever caught Inuyasha's attention, it would logically also catch the attention of most other people. The reasoning seemed to work with the way that he continued to have clients.

Aside for Inuyasha, Sesshomaru also used his little sister, Rin. She was a spark of help and she loved doing it. Where Inuyasha could tell him what a young man or just an adolescent might like, Rin was perfect for tasting things out that were targeted at children, especially little girls. She could not come up with crazy slogans like Inuyasha could, but she knew the right colors to catch a child's eyes and that was enough.

His stepmother served the same purpose, but to help him get the idea of what mortal women liked; although she was a bit more difficult to work with than his siblings. Izayoi, his father's current wife, had a thing where she disliked stating what was on her mind when he asked what she thought. He always took it as false modesty; he knew the woman had a working brain, after all. His father would not put up with her if she was completely brain-dead, and yet she insisted that she did not know something. Getting information was like pulling teeth with her, but he typically stuck it out and she would come up with things.

Despite the money, Sesshomaru still disliked his job; there were too many people at the agency for his tastes, especially humans. Societies mixing on any level got on his nerves more than anything else. He had to deal with stupid humans, stupid demons, and peasants of all kinds out in the street, interacting and getting in his way. Maybe the whole world was just idiotic and it took a real job for him to see that. Well, actually, he had known for a while now since he had gotten out of the care of his governess. Things were not getting any easier as he continued to move about in the real world.

And then to irk him further, he had been informed by his boss that he had a new account to handle, but there was a catch to it. He was going to be working with someone and that was bad enough. But, it turned out that there was more to it than that. The person that he was going to work with had originally handled the account when they dealt with a different firm. It seemed that the new guy had stolen the account after fleeing from his other job. Yeah, that was just great; he was working with a thief.

Sesshomaru decided not to stress over it. He would deal with it when he had to go to work. He was at home in his elegant, monstrous apartment and had nothing to worry about now, except the fact that his canvas was still blank. He fixed himself something to eat and then focused on the white space staring back at him. He had hoped to get some painting done over the weekend, but his muse did not seem to agree. Who or whatever his muse was, he noted that it had been absent for a while now.

He sighed as he realized that nothing was going to come to him by just staring at the canvas. He decided to go in search of some inspiration; perhaps his unknown muse would return to him. If not, he would go be a good big brother and do something with Rin; she always appreciated his company and he did not mind giving her attention. She was probably the only person on the planet that he did not mind giving his attention.

--------------

"Something wrong?" Naraku inquired. He was speaking to his wife, Kikyo. They were on a plane and flying to their new home.

"No. Why would you ask?" she countered.

"You look like something's wrong," he commented.

"It's nothing," she assured him.

He chuckled a bit and smirked for no reason that she could see, except for the fact that he probably was enjoying the fact that it looked like something was wrong with her. Kikyo focused her cocoa eyes out of the window and ignored her husband. She was secretly happy that they were moving because they were moving back to her home city. She would get to be near her sisters, cousins, and old friends. It was a very pleasing thought and she could not wait, but she contained herself.

Had Kikyo showed any signs of happiness, she was certain that her husband would try to ruin her mood. It was just the way he was. It seemed that he could not be content unless she was miserable. Most of the time, she projected a bored look of misery to keep him from bothering her. She would not consider herself miserable, but she would concede that she was not happy. She doubted that she ever would be truly happy.

Kikyo had never thought of herself as happy before, but once she married Naraku, she had realized that she had been happy before he became her husband. She had not had much before he entered her life. Her parents had died when she was thirteen and for a while, she had worried that things would only get worse. Her aunt had come to the rescue and assured her and her sisters that everything would be fine. Her aunt had allowed the sisters to live with her, but they had not stayed any longer than necessary. It was painful to live with their aunt because she was their mother's identical twin sister, so looking at her was like looking at their mother. It took a lot of energy to share a home with a woman that looked exactly like their mother, but with shorter hair, so the sisters moved out as soon as possible.

Her aunt had understood when they moved out; she knew that it had to agonizing to look at her with their mother's death fresh in their minds and hearts. The three sisters had moved into an apartment and their aunt helped them pay the rent. Her older sister, Midoriko, had gone out and gotten a job to support them; Midoriko was three years older than Kikyo and felt responsible for her and little Kaede. She wanted to support her younger sisters, but their aunt had objected to Midoriko working fulltime because she wanted her niece to give school the proper attention; she knew that her twin would want the girls to be all that they could be.

Midoriko did go to school, as did Kikyo, and they excelled; Kaede, being the youngest and currently only twelve years old, was still in school and holding up the sisters' tradition of being at the top of the class. Their aunt liked to tell them that their parents would be very proud of them. Kikyo now doubted that and she had for the year that she had been married to the male that she was with.

First of all, their family had a history of being priests and priestesses and against demons, yet she had gone out and married a hanyou. She recalled how disappointed her older sister looked when she showed her big sister the engagement ring. Midoriko had actually smacked Kikyo that day and stopped speaking to her for a long while. When Naraku moved Kikyo away from home, Midoriko had revived interested in her younger sister and made sure to keep in touch with her. Needless to say, Midoriko did not trust "that hanyou scum," which was her way of referring to Naraku.

Kikyo reveled in the attention from her sisters once she was out of the city because while she easily met people, she did not make friends easily. She quickly felt homesick and pings of loneliness when she was separated from her family. Naraku did not help matters, especially since his greatest joy had become arguing with her only days after they moved into their home. She started to see why her sister disliked him and she could not believe that she had missed his true personality for so long.

Living alone with Naraku for almost a year away from her family was painful; it was like a million needles in her eye every day of her life. So, of course, she was pleased to be headed back to her family. It was such a relief.

They were headed back to her home town because Naraku had taken a new job. She was now unemployed thanks to the move, but she would gladly trade her job for her sisters. She had been working at a clinic; she was a doctor. Right now, she was just going back to her dear sisters.

When the plane landed, Kikyo almost smiled, but she caught herself. She followed behind Naraku as he went to go pick up his bags; she had been able to carry on her things. Once the crimson-eyed half-demon secured his luggage, they caught a taxi and proceeded to their new home.

The couple now lived in an apartment on the opposite end of town from where Midoriko and Kaede lived. Kikyo knew that he had purposely purchased a place so far from her sisters because he hated her big sister if not as much, then more than Midoriko hated him. He also knew that she would want to spend some time with her sisters and it was a taunt of his to have her as far away from them as he could while they were in the same city. Little did he know, but she only needed to be in the same city as her sisters.

The second that she set foot in the apartment, her cell phone rang. She checked the number and shook her head a bit; her sisters had to be psychic. She answered the phone in a low voice because she did not want to catch Naraku's attention because she did not feel like dealing with him.

"Hi, Kikyo!" Kaede chirped into the phone.

"Hello, Kaede," Kikyo replied in her usual low voice. There was a joy in her tone that her sister easily detected.

"Say hello to Midoriko too. You're on speaker," the child reported.

"Oh. Hello, Midoriko," Kikyo added.

"Hello, little sister. Tomorrow we will get together and have lunch. This is not negotiable," Midorki informed her younger sister. She sounded like Kikyo, her voice mellow and calm, yet there was a sharpness to her voice that Kikyo's lacked; well, she typically lacked anyway. Given the chance Kikyo could be just as forceful as her elder sister, maybe even more so, if she worked up enough.

"Yes, big sister," Kikyo replied. Midoriko was the only person on the planet that Kikyo was almost totally submissive to. Many people joked that they wish they knew Midoriko's secret to controlling her sister.

"Oh, Kikyo! Kikyo! You've got to see my hamsters!" Kaede shouted into the phone and Kikyo smiled fondly a bit; she missed her sisters so much and wanted to see them as soon as possible.

"She allows these rodents to wander freely through our apartment. I think I shall buy a cat," Midoriko teased their baby sister.

Kikyo almost laughed, but held it in; she knew that such a noise would garner her husband's attention, so she was careful. She continued to converse with her sisters while Naraku wandered around their new home to find where he wanted to put all of his gaudy belongs. They had a rather large apartment for two and that was just because Naraku seemed to like to collect junk, in Kikyo's opinion anyway.

Well, at least, once Naraku began working, she would have the apartment to herself, not that she planned to spend much time in the apartment. They were now living in a great city with so many places that called to her. She had art museums to hit first of all and she hoped that her sisters would join her.

"Well, Kikyo, don't you think you should get to making dinner?" Naraku suggested after a while with a cruel smirk on his face. It seemed that she had been having too long a conversation with her sisters and he wanted her off of the phone now.

"Why is it that you like to pretend that you can't use a phone?" Kikyo countered. She was not going to make a meal the first night in their new house. She knew that he was just looking to cause a fuss, but she did not care. She was going to sink right to his level and she would bite back when he bit her.

"Is Naraku bothering you?" Midoriko asked her younger sister.

"He is requesting a meal that I won't make," Kikyo reported.

"You will make it," the half-demon insisted.

"Tell him to stop being a pest before I come over and purify him," Midoriko commented and she was dead serious. All she wanted was for Naraku to provide her with the excuse and distance to leave him a smoldering pile of half-demon ashes.

"I don't know what your sister is saying, but you should tell her to watch her tongue," Naraku threatened the siblings with that line. He had the precious middle sister right with him and while the big sister was trying to make it to them, he could always hurt the middle one, he believed anyway. He liked to believe that it would be easy for him to destroy Kikyo and he believed that Midoriko was on the same wave length as he was, thinking that he could harm her little sister.

Actually, Midoriko did not think there was a demon alive that could hurt her or her little sister; Kaede still had some way to go, but she was only a child. The only reason that Midoriko had not slain Naraku, aside for the fact that she would have go to court for murder, was because Kikyo had not requested it. She would never just outright kill her sister's husband, no matter how much she loathed his existence. She would just wait for Kikyo to take care of the hanyou annoyance.

"Big sister, the battery on my phone is about to die," Kikyo reported.

"Call on the house phone. It is connected, right?" Midoriko asked.

"No, that's to happen tomorrow," Kikyo reported.

"Just talk until the battery dies. It's what I always do," Kaede pointed out and Kikyo did not need to see her baby sister to know that she was smiling. She did remain on the phone until the battery died and then she was left to play along with Naraku as he picked a fight over dinner. He was such a child, she thought.

------(New day)

Sesshomaru sighed as he strolled into the office building that he worked. He was meeting with the person that he was going to be stuck with for more time than he liked, namely more than a minute, to work on the new account. He could only hope that on his scale of annoyance, the new assignment was low; he doubted that was going to happen.

He took the elevator up to the boss' floor and entered the man's office without knocking. It was a habit of Sesshomaru's to never knock and most people had just learned to deal with it. Most people had just learned to deal with him while he only loosely tolerated people.

"You should work on your manners, Sesshomaru," Totosai commented from behind his large black desk. He had his feet kicked up like he was lounging by a pool and not at work.

"I am here about the new account," Sesshomaru said in a clipped tone. He wanted to get to his office as soon as possible to avoid having to deal with something stupid, especially considering how his boss typically behaved.

"I know why you're here," the boss replied.

"Then where is this new man?" the dog demon inquired.

"Late apparently," Totosai answered as if it was no big deal.

Sesshomaru frowned; his day was not looking promising and it did not help matters that he had a boss that did not seem to care about what was professional. Well, once the newcomer showed up, Sesshomaru would straighten him out. There was not going to be any tardiness while working with the platinum-haired demon; everything would be prompt and on time.

The noble demon then frowned deeper as his nose caught a stench in the air. The door opened; apparently, Sesshomaru was not the only one that needed to learn some manners. Then the owner of the rank smell entered, a hanyou.

"Naraku, I take it," Totosai commented, speaking the newcomer, who was indeed Naraku.

"That is me. Totosai?" Naraku countered.

"Yeah, come on in," the old man beckoned his new employee.

Sesshomaru curled his lip as he realized that he would be working with the ebony-haired hanyou. Could the day get any worse? He hoped that the partnership was over rapidly. The only hanyou he could stand the smell of was his brother; with his brother, the smell was the last thing that he thought of because Inuyasha was always doing something moronic.

"Naraku, meet Sesshomaru. You two will be working together," Totosai announced.

Naraku knew that he would have to work with someone on the account prior to entering the office, but he frowned just the same. He could not believe that he took all that energy to lure that account away from his last firm only for them to want Sesshomaru on the account when he was hired by another agency. Apparently, they liked his artwork, among other things. He did not think that the dog demon was so special, but he could not express that to the clients.

"Good to meet you," Naraku said and he extended his hand. It was clear that he was lying to the full demon.

Sesshomaru glanced down at the hand offered to him. Surely that hanyou did not think that he was going to lower himself and shake the hand of a thieving half-breed that smelled like his blood was mixed with rotten vegetables because that certainly was not going to happen in that or any other lifetime. Sesshomaru turned his golden eyes to Totosai as if silently cursing the old man. He was definitely taking the new account as some kind of cruel torture.

"I hope you two come up with some good ideas. I think you know how much this account is worth," Totosai commented.

"Let's get this over with," Sesshomaru said in a gruff tone. The sooner they finished the account, the sooner he could get away from the smelly hanyou. "Oh, and Totosai."

"Yes?" the bug-eyed old man inquired.

"Let's not have this happen again," Sesshomaru stated.

"I can't tell the clients how to pick their workers," Totosai replied and the dog demon frowned. The two employees left the office. "Man, I'd hate to be the new guy," the old man muttered in an amused tone.

"Let's get a few things straight, half-breed," Sesshomaru said right outside the boss' office.

Naraku scowled before the speech even began. Did that dog bastard just refer to him as "half-breed" as if that was his name? It seemed that he was going to have to put the puppy in his place.

"You are to never be late while we work together. I do not care what the excuse. You are to be here on time no matter what. Understood?" Sesshomaru demanded to know.

"I don't know who you think you are—" Naraku started, but the nobleman cut him off.

"I suppose you don't understand. Let me explain it plainer, if you are not on time everyday, I shall travel to your home and rip your filthy stomach out because I have no desire to move on your schedule. You are on my time and you will adhere to my schedule," Sesshomaru stated firmly.

"I think you mean the company's schedule," Naraku corrected the dog demon.

"No, I mean my schedule. You will be on time and you will pull your weight. We will get this project done and I will never be bothered you again, agreed?" Sesshomaru made it seem like he was asking a question, but he was actually making a statement. He was always making a statement.

"I can agree on that much," the hanyou concurred because he would not want to be around the arrogant dog any longer than necessary.

"Good," the golden-eyed male said and he turned to leave.

"But, since I am new to the city, I might have a hard time finding my way around, like today," the ebony-haired half-demon commented.

"Get lost if you like, but I will not tolerate your shenanigans," Sesshomaru informed his partner. If he wanted to play kid games, he would spend the day with the only person whose shenanigans he would tolerate, namely his little sister.

Naraku did not respond. He would not let some cocky dog demon tell him how to run his account. He was the one that brought the account to Sesshomaru, so in his opinion, the pale demon should be thanking him for bringing him work. Well, he would show Sesshomaru which one of them was in charge.

--------------

Next time: Kikyo and Sesshomaru meet each other by accident.


	2. Is it art?

I don't own these characters.

2: Is it art?

Sesshomaru decided that he hated his job, more so than he had last week and he had not thought that was possible. It was just that he now had a partner to work on one account with and the partner was the most annoying half-breed that he had ever had the displeasure of meeting; Naraku had stolen that title from Inuyasha. Naraku was like a hundred of Inuyasha, but also did not know his place. Sure, Inuyasha acted big, but he understood his place in their family. Naraku did not understand his place in their office.

The dog demon tried not to let it get to him. He only had to deal with Naraku for a short while, but even the past few days that he had spent with the half-demon seemed like an eternity on top of another eternity. He was not sure that he would be able to survive any more time with the smelly hanyou without ripping the ebony-haired fellow apart.

And to make matters worse, he swore that ancient bug of a boss of his was enjoying his misery. He could see Totosai smirking sometimes outside of his office, as if he was enjoying a good laugh at the expense of the great Sesshomaru. It was unacceptable, but for the moment, the dog demon could only suffer through his fate because of his love for a steady paycheck and the fact that he had no replacement job lined up. He was going to start looking for a new job if being teamed up was a sign of things to come.

The rest of the agency did not seem to share Sesshomaru's deep hatred of the new employee. Some of the women around the place thought that Naraku even rivaled Sesshomaru in good looks. It was a debate amongst anyone inclined to appreciate male beauty to argue who was better, Sesshomaru or Naraku.

Naraku was a bit more well-liked around the office than Sesshomaru, mostly because he seemed to make an effort to get along with people. It was not really all that difficult to be better liked than the dog demon, though considering the fact that he was cold toward everyone at the office. But, then again, Sesshomaru had no reason to endear himself to anyone that was beneath him and he was not at his job to make friends. As far as he was concerned, he was not alive to make friends, so he did not waste his time in such endeavors.

Now, through out the few days that the two males had been working together, Sesshomaru was not the only one that developed an opinion. Naraku did not think highly of Sesshomaru at all. First of all, he resented the fact that the clients he had so patiently prodded away from his old firm dared to set terms with him when they found out where he was relocating to. They wanted Sesshomaru to do some of his little artwork for their product; how revolting, in his opinion.

Naraku was not a fan of art; sometimes, he seemed to go out of his way to despise it. He did not understand why people wasted their time looking at it. He knew that so-called artists only "created" such things because they wanted attention. He was certain that was why the self-important dog demon did his little doodles.

The hanyou had even checked out Sesshomaru's portfolio work on the company website. The platinum-haired demon designed junk as far as he was concerned. He was certain that he could get the same, if not better quality work from a stoner in high school, but there was no telling his clients that. So, instead of losing one of his accounts, he had agreed to work with Sesshomaru before even meeting the pompous ass. Now that he knew Sesshomaru, he was not sure if he would have made the same decision if he could go back.

As far as he could tell, Sesshomaru had a stick lodged deep up his rectum and had no plans to take it out; Inuyasha had been making the same claim for years and to think, the two half-breeds had never met. There was an air about Sesshomaru that said he came from royalty before Naraku even found out that the guy was a demon prince. It seemed that he thought that everyone and thing should bend to his will because he was a noble; well, to hell with that, Naraku thought.

The crimison-eyed hanyou had no inclinations to bow to anyone, especially not Sesshomaru. He was better than all of the other idiots that populated the world as far as he was concerned and he did not care about their status. All he knew was that he was the best of the best and he always had to have the best; that was the reason that he had deserted his old firm.

Naraku had assumed that his former agency was the best until he saw what Totosai's business was doing. He had to move on, even if it meant moving back to his wife's wretched home city. He would have preferred moving Kikyo further away from the city instead of back into it because she would be easier to control if she was not near her busybody older sister.

Because Naraku believed that he desired nothing but the best was the reason that he had pursued Kikyo. He thought that she would make the perfect wife. On the surface, he would admit that he was right, but he was not exactly what she assumed that she would be. It did not matter him, though. The appearance was the important thing and everyone saw that he had a very attractive and docile wife; she was docile in public anyway. At home, she might as well have been a pale puma.

He did like that Kikyo had spirit because it gave him a goal when it came to her. He was going to break that woman one day. He was going to make her act the way that he wanted to. Such a goal would not have been possible or any fun if she was not so headstrong. She tried so hard to resist him that it was amusing. He was certain that he was going to make her crumble because he always got his way and proof of that was the fact that he was married to Kikyo.

He had wanted her from the moment that he had met her after he had been in a minor accident. She had been on the street when he had gotten into the scrape and she had helped him long before an ambulance arrived. It was love at first sight for him; it had been a rather forgettable day to her, though. She had not even recollected exactly who he was when he "ran" into her a few days later; he had purposely run into her. He invited her out and poured on the charm; now, they were where they were.

Kikyo supposed that it would have been best if he had not reminded her who he was that day over a year ago. She truly had not remembered helping him that faithful day he was in an accident and had she kept on her way that day he ran into her, she would never have been reminded and she would not be with him now. Instead, she had lunch with him and allowed him to pretend to be something that he was not. She even fell for the act somewhat since she was currently married to him.

For the past few days, Kikyo had not thought about her mistake of marrying the hanyou. She did not have the time or the inclination to do so. She had been spending time with her two favorite people, her sisters. She was currently on her way to meet them for lunch again.

"Hey, Kikyo!" Kaede called as she noticed the middle sister strolling toward her and Midoriko; they were sitting at a sidewalk café.

"Kaede," Midoriko somewhat admonished the child. She was smiling, so it was not a total scolding.

Kaede smiled sheepishly. She was growing up to be the opposite of her older sisters, Midorkio and Kikyo noted. She was loud where they were typically quiet. She was hyper where they were mellow. She was interested in an endless list of things while they had both had only a couple of hobbies that they focused on.

The older sisters did not mind Kaede's personality. As long as the girl was not getting into any trouble, they were all right with her doing just about anything, as long as it was not stupid and it did not bother her grades anyway. Kaede seemed to know that without being told and always came home with some bizarre new way to kill time.

"Good to see you again, sister," Midoriko greeted Kikyo. The sisters exchanged light kisses on the cheek. Kikyo then went over to Kaede and did the same.

"I do enjoy meeting up with you two," Kikyo informed them as she sat down at the table.

"Not going to be able to do this too much more. I got school next week," Kaede pouted. Usually, she did not mind school because she could hang out with her friends and do all sorts of wild things with them. But, now, she just wanted to be with her sisters.

"It's all right, little one. I will be around on the weekends and after school too," Kikyo promised.

"Really?" Kaede asked with an eager grin.

"Can you really keep such a promise, sister?" the eldest of the trio inquired.

"At the moment, I can. I have no job, after all," Kikyo pointed out.

"That's true. You will look for work, right?" Midoriko inquired.

"Of course. As if I would rely on Naraku to support me," the middle sister answered.

"Good to know," Midoriko commented.

The sisters dropped that conversation in favor of allowing Kaede to tell them about how she wanted a new bike because she had ruined her last one. Apparently, according the youngest sister, one should scout out a hill before riding down it because there could be big rocks and when bikes meet big rocks at decent speeds, the rock would win the contest. The older pair sighed; at least their baby sister had not been injured while riding down the hill. They wondered if she did such things because of peer pressure or just because she was that daring.

The trio ordered their lunches and changed the subject once again because they would rather not know what Kaede did when they were not looking; the older pair would only worry if they were aware of everything the little one did. Kaede knew that she should not share what she did in her spare time, but it was fun to see the incredulous expressions on her sisters' faces.

"Oh, sister, did you hear that they opened a new museum downtown?" Midoriko asked Kikyo.

"A new museum?" Kikyo echoed and she leaned forward because her elder sister had her interest.

"Museums are boring unless they have dinosaurs," Kaede declared. She was hoping to stop a discussion about museums from rising. Her sisters were not into "dinosaur" museums.

"It features mostly demon paintings," Midoriko informed the middle sister.

"Really?" Kikyo was now very much fascinated. She was a sculptor in her spare time, but she enjoyed art from all mediums. She had a stomach for demonic art, which her older sister could not fully understand.

Midoriko did not have anything against demon art, but most of the time, it was meant to be beyond a human's understanding, even a human that had a deep knowledge of demons like she did. Demons tended to have higher senses than humans, so they experienced more of the physical world and they expressed that in their works. A demon would be able to grasp the expression, but a human would never be able to experience it and the meaning of the work was usually lost to humans because of that. Of course, that did not stop her from enjoying the work when she could.

Kikyo had an odd ability to comprehend what a demon was trying to express a great deal of the time when she looked at demon art. It was a talent that made Midoriko enjoy going to galleries with her sister. She liked to get an interpretation that she could understand and help her appreciate a piece. It also let her see that despite the fact that Naraku was trying so hard to break her sister, he was not succeeding because she still held on to her love of art and healing.

"Shall we go to this new museum sometime?" Kikyo asked.

"Today," Midoriko proposed.

"No!" Kaede protested. She did not want to go to some boring museum.

"Fine. We'll go tomorrow and little Miss Kaede can go play with her friends," Midoriko commented.

"Try not to break anything tomorrow," Kikyo remarked, speaking to the baby of the group.

"Try not to fall asleep in that boring place," Kaede retorted.

Midoriko and Kikyo only smiled, even though they disliked it when Kaede got sassy. They supposed that it was all right as long as she was only that way with them. They did not want her to behave so brazenly with others because they taught her better than that. She had been taught manners and they expected her exercise those around most people, which she typically did.

"Well, little sister, since you have so much to say, what it is we shall do today?" Midoriko inquired while fiddling with the straw in her iced tea.

"Laser tag," Kaede suggested with a devilish grin. It would be quite the sight for her two dignified sisters to be in a dark place with laser tag equipment.

"Laser tag?" Kikyo echoed in a puzzled tone. She was circling her index finger around the glass her lemonade. It was a strange habit of hers.

"Yeah, laser tag," the preteen repeated.

"I suppose we could indulge the little one," Midoriko commented.

"I would rather the museum," the middle female admitted. "But, I will give it up for now in favor of what Kaede wishes to do."

Kaede grinned to herself; oh, they were going to be fun to watch. So, after lunch, Kaede led her older sisters to a place not to far away for them to engage in a bit of laser tag. Apparently, the youngest of the three spent a lot of time at the place because some of the employees knew her and greeted her as if they were friends. They were curious about her sisters too; Midoriko and Kikyo stood out in the establishment. They just had a look that said they did not belong in an arcade.

"Sister, I think we should have thought this out a bit more," Kikyo commented as she was handled the equipment to play the game.

"We should have at the very least asked for clarification on what it was," Midoriko replied as she focused down on the laser gun for the game. Leave it to Kaede to take them someplace that they would not likely end up even if they were lost.

Kaede only grinned; she believed that her sisters needed to try new things. So, they suited up to play the game and were let go into the play area. Kikyo and Midoriko looked around at their dark surroundings. Neither of them were up for surprises in the dark, even if it was not truly dark and it was only a game.

"So, we just shoot at those who are not on our team?" Kikyo asked her little sister.

"Yes," Kaede confirmed.

"Will the light remain dim?" Midoriko inquired while looking around, scanning the area.

"Yeah," Kaede affirmed.

"It is a bit silly. We can just sense the others that are in here with us," Kikyo commented and Midoriko nodded in agreement.

The game began and the sisters sort of cheated. They could sense where their opponents were, but they supposed it was all right since there were a couple of demons on the other team. The demons had similar advantages to the sisters, so the battle ended up balancing out.

Kaede was a bit shocked that her sisters were not bad at laser tag. They were unaware that they had to fire at the lights that were flashing on vests that the players were wearing, but it had been drilled into their minds when taking archery to go for the center of their target, so they shot for the chests of their opponents and thanks to the archery lessons again, they were excellent shots.

"We won!" Kaede cheered when the game was done.

Her sisters were less enthusiastic once the game was over. They tucked the lesson of the day in the back of their minds; never agree to play laser tag again. At least it was over and they did have the museum to look forward to tomorrow without having to worry about Kaede moaning and groaning as they toured the corridors.

The day ended and Kikyo returned to her home with Naraku. He was home; he often beat her home, no matter what. She stayed out with her sisters until very late; Midoriko often tried to make her stay with them through out the night.

"You do know it's almost midnight, right?" Naraku commented as he stood in the hallway to glare at her with those sharp scarlet eyes of his.

"I am aware," she answered. She did have a watch and she had learned how to tell time back in the first grade like most other children.

"Why were you out so late?" he inquired.

"I was with my sisters," she replied as if that answered his question. It was actually her way of saying that it was none of his business as to why she was out so late.

"So?"

"So, that is why. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to go take a shower and then go to bed," she informed him in a clipped tone.

Kikyo did not wait for his response. She moved passed him to go to their room to retrieve what she required for her shower. Naraku frowned; he was starting to get sick of her attitude. She was feeling the same with his attitude.

----(Next day)

Kikyo and Midoriko walked the halls of the new museum that the eldest was telling the middle one about. The design of the place itself earned their approval before they even noticed any of the art.

"If only the museum down the street looked this elegant," Midoriko commented while examining the pristine white columns at the entrance of the building.

"It would certain draw me in more often," Kikyo replied.

Midoriko nodded in agreement. They traveled through the museum, which was full of demons, who eyed the sisters suspiciously. The two ladies could hear whispers of wonder about the humans that dared pollute their museum; why demons thought so highly of themselves, the duo would never know. The sisters ignored the demons for the most part; as long as no one attacked them physically, they were fine. They were used to whispers anyway.

The sisters were whispered about by humans and demons alike for most of their lives. They were viewed as odd for a number of reasons by humans, like their interest in archery, even though no one believed there was a practical use for archery. Then there was the fact that they sought to build up and control their spiritual power, as if they lived in the feudal era, many people commented snidely. The fact that they behaved so similarly, like they were twins or something of the like, but there were three years between the pair seemed to bother people. It seemed that everything about them was whispered about, no matter how trivial it seemed.

Demons whispered about the sisters because they tended to travel where most humans would not and the demons that were there noticed them. When demons whispered about them, it was because they stood out as human. At least that made sense to them.

"Sister, isn't this one of your favorites?" Midoriko asked as they came to a painting that most humans would find disturbing. It was of two wolves in a forest and one wolf was feasting on the heart of the other.

"Oh, this painting," Kikyo sighed.

"It still haunts you," Midoriko commented.

"Every time I see this picture, I wonder what it is that he is trying to express here. I just cannot grasp the meaning of this painting," the younger sister replied.

"Surely it will come to you one day," Midoriko said.

Kikyo did not respond. She only stared at the painting and allowed it to do what it always did when she laid eyes on the piece, capture her. What was the painting trying to say? There were two possible meanings and no one had been able to figure out which was the true statement behind the painting.

Midoriko had to pull her sister from the painting, but now she knew where her younger sibling would be when she was alone. The painting was a "Kikyo trap" in a way. She just needed to comprehend that painting and she would stare at it until she did.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru massaged his temples and stared down at his desk. He was so bothered that it was hurting his brain. Naraku was a new type of annoyance. They had not agreed on anything so far and they had been working together for a whole week. He was ready to just toss the troublesome hanyou out of the window; it would at least rid him of the cause of his headache, even if it might jeopardize the account.

Once he realized that he was very close to murdering that filthy half-breed, he decided that he needed to calm down. He tore himself from his desk and marched out of his office. He exited the building without a thought and traveled to the one place guaranteed to soothe his nerves, the museum.

The dog demon dropped a few dollars in the donation box outside of the building and then strolled in to look around; he had to support fellow artists. He had gone to the museum on opening day not to long ago, but he had not been back. He liked what they had around one the first day, so he had vowed to himself that he would make a return trip. It seemed like the perfect time to do so when he was considering slaying his account partner.

He slowly strolled through the place, admiring the painting mostly. There were other works of art around the place, but he was mostly there for the paintings. He then noticed something that he thought was odd as he passed through a corridor; there was a lone woman in the hall. It would not have been so strange, but she was a human.

Sesshomaru wondered what a human was doing in a museum full of demonic art. He walked over to her to see what piece it was that garnered her attention. He was surprised by the painting that she was staring at. He suspected that she was disgusted by the scene of a wolf devouring the heart of another; it seemed like something a human would be because she probably had no understanding of demon art.

"Good day," she greeted Sesshomaru as he came to stand by her and eye the painting. It was actually one of his personal favorites.

"Good day to you," he replied. "Is this not genius?" he asked. He was actually waiting for her to disagree, so he could explain to her why a foolish human would never be able to grasp such works.

"I suppose so," she concurred.

"You suppose?"

"Until I can figure out if he is portraying the two wolves as allies and the one wolf is eating his comrade's heart to always carry a piece of him with him or if they are enemies and the one wolf is devouring the other's heart to possess his fighting spirit, I cannot weigh in on the genius of the piece," she explained.

Sesshomaru glanced down at the pale creature next to him. It seemed that he had been wrong about her, not that he would admit that out loud. So, she was actually there to admire the painting and staring at it to understand it, not because she wanted to know why it was considered art.

"Well, have you ever supposed that he was going for something so ambiguous?" Sesshomaru proposed.

"I can agree with that, but that is different from his usual style," she commented.

"You are familiar with his other works?" he inquired while hiding his surprise. He had never met a human interested in demon art because it usually was so beyond human experience.

"He is my favorite," she admitted.

"How odd," he commented.

"I know," she agreed.

"Do you suppose you could leave this one painting and walk with me through the rest of the place?" he inquired. He was curious of the little human because she was an oddity. He wanted to see how deep her knowledge of demon art went and see if she was lying or not. After all, he took his art very seriously and he was not interested in being lied to.

"I can do that since I doubt I will come to answer with this painting anytime soon. I am Kikyo," she introduced herself.

"Sesshomaru," he replied.

"It is a pleasure," she stated.

He did not respond; if it was a pleasure to meet her remained to be seen. He was skeptical that it would be, but he was willing to try. He was willing to try anything to keep him from returning to work and having to deal with Naraku.

--------------

Next time: Sesshomaru and Kikyo spend some time together while Naraku continues to try their nerves.


	3. Never saw it coming

I don't own these characters.

3: Never saw it coming

Sesshomaru glanced down at the petite creature by his side for about the hundredth time since he made her acquaintance no more than an hour ago. The newly discovered creature, to him anyway, was called Kikyo and she was a credit to her species; although he was growing skeptical already that she was truly human. Yes, his nose assured him that she was quite human, but from what he could see while spending time with her, she was some new type of creature.

Kikyo was the only human that he had ever encountered to understand demon art and be able to appreciate it almost as a demon would. She was an interesting person, for a human anyway. Well, he would admit that he was enjoying her company, but he was willing to bet that would not last long. She was a human, so she would probably do something to make him turn away in disgust soon enough, he suspected.

"You certainly do know your art," Sesshomaru commented as Kikyo finished admiring yet another painting.

"I feel like I'm touching another person's soul when I view their art," she replied.

Sesshomaru only glanced down at her again. His thoughts on art were not entirely the same, but he liked hearing her opinions. She had a deep intellect on the matter, which he had already grown to respect. He supposed that she might not do something that would make him turn away from her. Maybe she was not human and that was why he was liking the time that he spent with her.

"Kikyo, have you had lunch yet?" the dog demon inquired.

"No, I haven't," she answered.

"Would you care to join me?" he offered.

"I would like to, but I have to meet with my sisters. Perhaps tomorrow?"

Sesshomaru thought about it. He did not like being turned down on his proposal, but he excused it because she really could have prior engagements for the day; he did not feel like she was blowing him off. He would like to meet with her again because she did help relax him. He had not thought of that fool Naraku since he had been with her.

"Tomorrow would be fine. Is there a place that you prefer?" the platinum-haired male inquired.

"No, not really," she answered.

"All right. Is there a place that I should pick you up?" he asked.

"I will probably be here again. I have been here for the past few days," she replied.

"Really?" he asked in a surprised tone; well, it was a surprised tone for him. The subtle change in his voice went by Kikyo since she did not know him very well. "Is it because of that one painting?" he asked. He could tell that one particular painting was like a magnet for her attention.

"Mostly. I also still have not had the chance to see all of the floors of this place. It is monstrous," she pointed out and motioned with her hand around the corridor that they were.

"It is. Surely you would see more of it if you didn't take so much time on the one painting that puzzles you," he commented.

"I suppose. I may just take your word for it and admit that he was trying to be ambiguous. It just doesn't seem like something that he would usually do," she argued.

"Every now and then an artist should step away from his formula and try something different. Expressing one's self in the same way ceases to be art after a while and is only a cry for help," he stated.

Kikyo nodded. "I suppose. Well, sir, I have to be going or my sisters will worry. I shall see you tomorrow when?" she asked.

"The time that we met today is fine. Have a good day," he replied.

Kikyo nodded and took her leave. He watched her as she exited the museum. He had just made the acquaintance of quite the interesting little human and he thought that he might want to keep an eye on her. After all, it was not every day that he met a human that could hold his attention for as long as she had. He looked forward to his meeting with her tomorrow.

He figured that he needed to get back to work. He was only supposed to be gone for an hour and his hour had ended almost thirty minutes ago. He strolled up the street and had the misfortune of walking next to a bus as it was pulling away; he was covered in exhaust from the vehicle. He frowned and covered his nose to avoid passing out thanks to the horrid odor. He was starting to think that he had been cursed.

The platinum-haired demon entered the building and the look on his face told everyone to stay away from him unless they had something very important to inform him of or they had a death wish. Everyone stayed out of his path and he made a beeline for his office, only to find out that his office was the last place he would like to be. The room was infested with Naraku.

"What do you want?" the dog demon inquired with a frustrated sigh as he made his way to his desk, which he had situated in the corner.

"You smell like a bus," Naraku noted.

"That doesn't tell me what you want," Sesshomaru pointed out.

"Have you done any work yet?" the hanyou seemed to demand to know. His tone caused the full demon to frown deeper than what he was already doing.

"Isn't that a question that you should ask yourself?" the golden-eyed male countered in a bit of a forceful tone himself.

Needless to say, their partnership was not working out well so far. They could hardly stand to be in the same room together, so bouncing ideas off of each other was unheard of. They had been attempting to work alone and then compare what they come up with, but neither of them liked what the other did, so they always ended up back to the old drawing board.

"Have you come up with a logo or not?" Naraku huffed. He was sick of the dog demon acting as if he was the one not doing anything. He had come up with several slogans that he was certain would have worked, but Sesshomaru's logos had not been worth the paper they were drawn on in his opinion. He really did not see why his clients desired the arrogant dog on the account.

"Have you come up with another slogan?" Sesshomaru inquired.

The crimson-eyed half-demon frowned. He was sick of the dog demon answering his questions with a question. Sesshomaru never gave him a straight answer, which he took as a sign of disrespect. He deserved some damn respect, in his opinion.

Sesshomaru was looking to be disrespectful with his questioning. He did not respect Naraku, but that was not very he answered a question with a question. He did it because he did not see why Naraku was interrogating him when it was clear that the hanyou had not put in any work on anything. How dare Naraku question him when Naraku had done nothing at all?

"Unless you have something to show me, you should get out," Sesshomaru stated.

Naraku stood defiantly for a moment. The noble demon was not looking to play around with Naraku. He stood back up, preparing to go through the irksome hanyou out of the office, but Naraku wisely exited the office. Sesshomaru sighed and sat back down.

At least the day was not a total loss, the dog demon mused. He had met the interesting little human and he had a lunch date with her tomorrow, so that was a plus. He would look forward to that, even if she was just a human. She was still one of the most fascinating women that he had come across, especially by accident.

--------------

Kikyo made her way to the little café that she and her sisters continued to meet at. They were waiting for her as usual. They had probably been waiting for her longer than usual, she realized. She had spent more time with Sesshomaru than she had met to spend at the museum. She had not meant to, but he was an interesting fellow.

Sesshomaru was interesting to her because of his limited fascination with art. He had appeared so uninterested when she had begun to go on about some of the statues, but little by little, she hooked him. He tried to pretend that he did not care, but he asked questions about the statues while acting as if they meant nothing to him. She felt like she had just got someone interested in statues.

She had enjoyed his company because he was very learned about the paintings in the museum. He also had no problem with sharing his less-than-humble opinion on many pieces; he also seemed to like saying why he thought a certain interpretation was wrong. He was convincing and had changed her mind on a several paintings.

"Sister, where have you been?" Midoriko inquired when she noticed Kikyo.

"The museum again," the middle sister answered.

"You truly like that museum, hmm?" Midoriko asked.

"You knew that I would and that's why you showed it to me," Kikyo replied.

"This is true. I wish you would have called to let us know that you were going to be late," the eldest woman commented.

"We could've ordered," Kaede pointed out.

"I'm sorry. I lost track of the time," Kikyo explained.

"That's unlike you," Midoriko stated and Kikyo nodded in agreement.

"What happened?" Kaede asked while taking a gulp from her soda. She was wearing a baseball hat and it was covering one of her chocolate eyes, but she was tempted to take it off because it was rather hot.

"Nothing much happened. I just met an interesting fellow and we got to talking. Eventually, I was engrossed in the conversation over some of the paintings and other works," Kikyo explained.

"You left us waiting because of a guy?" Kaede inquired in a teasing tone.

"Hardly," Kikyo answered.

"A demon was actually talking with you about demon art in that museum?" Midoriko asked a bit incredulously.

"Well, I think that I caught him by surprise," the middle sister replied.

"I'm sure you did. No demon expects to see a human in a museum full of demonic art. He probably thought that you were lost," the eldest remarked.

"Or bonkers," the youngest added.

"He may have, but in the end, we enjoyed each other's company and had a fine talk. He left me with a better understanding of a few pieces that had always puzzled me," Kikyo reported with a small smile.

"Well, at least you enjoyed yourself, even if it was with a demon," Midoriko commented.

Midoriko wondered what it was between her sister and people with demon blood. She did not mind that Kikyo had just admitted to enjoying the company of a demon male that was not her husband. Kikyo deserved sometime to be happy and she certainly would not get that with her standoffish husband, who seemed to be a sadist and liked to make Kikyo miserable whenever the chance reared its head.

"So, what was the demon like?" Kaede asked.

"He was intelligent, very into paintings as far as I could tell—" Kikyo started, but her little sister cut her off.

"What did he look like?" the youngest clarified.

"Oh. Well, he was tall and rather handsome with very light silver hair. He was pale…ethereally so. He was actually very soft spoken, but he sounded so very deliberant when he spoke. I'm meeting him again tomorrow," Kikyo replied.

"Tomorrow? Are you sure that's a good idea?" the eldest woman inquired.

"Why would it not be? We had a good time today and he did want to meet up again. I don't see why that should not be a good idea," Kikyo answered.

"Well, you are married," Kaede commented.

"I walked through a museum with him. I didn't jump into bed with him," the middle sister argued.

Midoriko was a bit stunned by Kikyo's words. The latter sentence was something that she would have expected from Kaede, not Kikyo. She would never use such crude phrases, so she did not expect the middle sister to do such a thing.

"Shouldn't you not chance it?" the youngest commented.

"I am not going to do anything with him, aside for walk through the museum and have lunch tomorrow. That is all. I understand that I am married," Kikyo stated.

She was married. She was married to one of the worse men that she had ever met. But, she was not going to be disloyal because she made a stupid decision. Besides, she had only just met Sesshomaru. She was not interested in him in any sort of romantic way. She had just enjoyed a museum with him and that did not amount to much to her. After all, she enjoyed museums when she was by herself.

"Kikyo, be careful with this. Naraku might sense this other demon on you," Midoriko pointed out, as if her younger sister did not know that.

Kikyo only glanced at her sister. She knew that her hanyou husband might sense or smell another demon on her, but for that to happen, she would need to be near him. She was not looking to be near him and ever since he began his new job, he did not seem to want to be near her either.

Naraku typically came home late now; he went to bars and places looking to unwind after a day of dealing with Sesshomaru. She was usually asleep by the time he came into the apartment. A few times, he came in drunk and woke her up to be an annoyance, but he usually left her alone, which she was thankful for. She knew how bad he could be if given any sort of excuse and from the way that he ranted about the "dog bastard" that he was working with, whatever was going on at him job seemed like it should have been enough of a reason for him to bother her.

The hanyou was looking to focus his sadistic energy on Sesshomaru since he had so quickly come to despise the full demon. He had practically forgotten that he had a wife he had been planning to break…for the moment at least. She knew that she was always somewhere in his mind because of his twisted view on things.

"So, you say you're having lunch with this new demon. Don't you think that is a bit much?" Midoriko inquired.

"To have lunch? I have lunch with you two everyday," Kikyo pointed out.

"We're not male demons," Midoriko stated.

"Sister, I am not going to do anything with him. This is not a date and I'm not having an affair this gentleman. You're reading too much into," the middle sister replied.

Midoriko waved Kikyo off. She doubted that her younger sister would do anything outrageous, but she still did not think that it was a good idea for her sister to hang around a demon male when married to a hanyou, a rather evil hanyou. She thought that it was just asking for trouble.

"Be careful, sister," the eldest practically pled.

"It is only lunch," Kikyo replied in a dismissive tone. She did not think anything would happen. She understood that she was married and she was not really interested in Sesshomaru anyway. Yes, he knew a lot about art and he seemed to very intelligent, but that did not make him attractive to her.

"Still be careful," Midoriko repeated.

Kikyo only nodded, hoping that it would ease her elder sister's mind. She had no plans to do anything with Sesshomaru aside for have lunch with him and she doubted that he wanted anything from her. He did not see to think too highly of humans, stating a number of times while they toured the museum that "humans could never do something so grand" or something else against humans. She did not see why he had even spent time with her since he seemed to think that humans were little more than total bipedal monkeys and nothing more. She figured that she might be able to get a better handle on him when she spent more time with him tomorrow.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru strolled into the demon art museum. He thought that Kikyo would be waiting outside for him, but he did not see her there. He remembered her scent from yesterday and he caught a whiff of it at the front of the museum, which let him know that she was there. He figured that he knew where she was, but he still followed her sent, which led him to right where he knew she would be.

"You really like this painting," Sesshomaru commented while standing next to Kikyo.

"Even if it is supposed to be ambiguous as you say in meaning, I can still appreciate the colors and brush strokes as I do with all of his works," she replied.

"I suppose," he said. "How long have you been here?" he inquired. He could tell from her smell at the front of the building and how faded it was that she had been there a while, but he wanted to know how long she had roamed the museum.

"I actually don't know," she answered with a small amused smile. She lost track of time in the museum often it seemed. Such things never happened in other museums, but there was so much there.

"You are an odd little human," he commented.

"I hope you don't think I'll take that as a compliment," she riposted.

Sesshomaru seemed to think on it for a moment. "No, I don't suppose you would," he stated.

"At least you know. So, are we to have lunch or might I continue to get lost in this work?" she asked.

"Lunch for me would be best. I could use some kind of nourishment," he commented. He needed something to give him strength to go deal with that blasted fool of a hanyou. Naraku was going to make him pull all of his hair out before using his poisonous claws to decapitate the filthy half-breed.

Sesshomaru turned around to leave the museum and Kikyo followed him. He hailed a taxi, which she thought was a bit odd. There were dozens of restaurants and cafes in the area that they were in, so why did they need to take a cab anywhere? She glanced at her companion and realized that if she did not ask, he was not going to explain himself.

"Where are we going?" she inquired.

"A good place," he simply answered. He wanted to go to his favorite restaurant and eat his favorite meal to help him forget that an irksome bastard like Naraku even existed. He thought that an elegant atmosphere and intelligent company would wipe Naraku from his mind, if only for a little while.

Kikyo only nodded. Some women might be worried being in an enclosed place with a male demon that they just met and had no idea where they going, but Kikyo hardly thought about it. Danger was not really a word that she recognized because she was always confident that she could take care of herself. Besides, she did not sense any threat from him.

They silently took the short ride to the restaurant that Sesshomaru wanted to go to. Kikyo did not look surprised by the décor of the restaurant. She used to often go to nice places with her elder sister whenever Midoriko won a case; the eldest sister was a rather successful attorney.

The golden-eyed demon glanced down at his companion to see her reaction to the place that they would have lunch. There was no reaction, which he did not admit, impressed him. He rarely met a female that could keep her calm when standing outside of such a lush establishment; he noticed almost every subtle change in a woman when she laid eyes on something that showed he had wealth at his disposal. There was no change her demeanor.

They entered and Sesshomaru was given a table, even though he did not have a reservation. Kikyo did not look impressed because she was not. She was an odd creature, he silently repeated to himself. He was coming to understand that he liked the fact that she was so strange.

"I'm not sure if they serve human food," Sesshomaru commented, even though he was lying. His father brought his stepmother there all of the time and he knew that they served human food, especially when Rin went to the restaurant and then she had to let everyone know that they served the best grilled fish that she had ever tasted.

He had lied because he wanted to see her reaction to the lie. He figured that any other woman would either pout or pretend that it did not bother her. He was not sure what Kikyo might do since she was different from any other woman that he could think of, except maybe Rin, but Rin was a human that thought that she was a demon more than anything else.

"Why would you bring me to some place that might not serve what I need?" Kikyo inquired while looking at the menu and she could see that they did cater to both humans and demons.

"Perhaps I thought that you would eat demon food since you enjoy demon art," he proposed.

"You would be reading too much into me then, sir," she commented with a small smile. She was obviously amused and the look on her face nearly made him smile.

"I should have known a human would lack depth," he countered. Usually, he would mean those words, but something about her made them more a tease than anything else. Maybe it had something to do with the fact she nearly made him smile; it was something that only his little sister should have been able to do.

"Well, I should have known that a demon would be selfish," she said.

"I suppose you should have," he concurred.

Kikyo laughed just a bit. A waiter came over to take their orders and they both noted that the other did not order how they assumed they would. They both ordered what they knew to be the other's species form of junk food. They looked at each other as the waiter went off to gather their meals.

"You don't look like the type to have such a poor diet," Sesshomaru said.

"I was going to say the same of you," Kikyo replied.

"I suppose that there's much for us to learn about each other."

"It does seem that way. Well, we have time, don't we?" she asked.

"Well, we have an hour and then I must get back to work," he admitted with a subtle pained look in his eyes. She noticed.

"You're stressed over work," she said.

"No, only a person at work," he commented.

"Well, if you wish, you can tell me about it. Or if you would like, you could pretend that person doesn't exist at all. I'm sure I can offer up some kind of conversation if you would rather forget," the cocoa-eyed woman offered.

"I'm sure you could," he replied.

Sesshomaru decided against discussing Naraku. He would rather not burden her with the annoyance of a hanyou. He also would rather forget Naraku anyway while he was with Kikyo. He wanted to know more about the strange human in his company than anything else. She intrigued him.

The pair sat with each other, making casual conversation. Every now and then, they would hit a lull in the discussion and they would just be silent. He was amazed when she would just allow the silence to reign. Most women would try to fill the quiet with something irrelevant or irksome; even his darling little sister had a bad habit with that one, but then again, Rin was a talker. Kikyo was not and he silently admitted to himself that he liked that about her. It was so hard to find a person who understood that silence did not have to be discomforting or filled with any idea that came to mind.

"So, what are you doing tomorrow?" Sesshomaru asked Kikyo as they finished with their meal and prepared to leave the establishment.

"The same thing that I did today," Kikyo replied.

"No appointment with your sisters?"

"Only if you're not going to ask me to lunch again," she answered with a small smile.

"I see. Well, would you care to join me for lunch here again tomorrow?" he inquired.

"Should I meet you here?" she countered.

"No, I wouldn't want to cut into your time with that precious painting," he remarked.

"The painting is quite fascinating," she defended herself.

"I know. I'll come back to the museum to get you," he said. It would be the gentleman thing to do, after all, and he was…okay, he would not call himself a gentleman, but he did have manners.

"All right, see you tomorrow then. I hope when you return to work, things will be better for you," she said.

Sesshomaru nodded, even though he doubted that things would be better for him. If she knew Naraku, he thought, then she could just tell him where to find the right amount of bug spray to kill the pest. They bid each other farewell and went their separate ways for the day. It would be nice to meet up again tomorrow, they thought.

--------------

Next time: if it looks like a date and quacks like a date…doesn't that make it a date? Maybe not since Sesshomaru finds out that Kikyo is married and he doesn't take the news well.


	4. Unidentified Dates

I don't own these characters.

4: Unidentified Dates

Sesshomaru stared at his desk while Naraku went on about his next bad idea. The dog demon silently admitted that neither of them were coming off as the tops in their field with the work that they were doing for the account. Naraku was coming up with junk upon junk while Sesshomaru was not doing much better. The golden-eyed male had not drawn a decent logo or mascot since meeting up with the crimson-eyed hanyou.

"You're acting as if you don't want this account, dog," Naraku commented because he could tell that the full demon was not paying attention to him, not that Sesshomaru ever paid him much mind.

"From your work, I'm assuming you don't want it either, half-breed," Sesshomaru countered. It took all of his self-control to not tear the hanyou apart for referring to him as "dog."

Neither Sesshomaru nor Naraku called each other by name. They tended to call each other any profane word that came to mind; the most commonly used was "bastard." They used such words almost as if they were nicknames. The company was starting to take a pool on which one of them would snap first and kill the other, included in that was the means of what one would use to kill the other.

"Well, what have you done that was worthwhile lately, dog?" Naraku asked his partner.

Sesshomaru only glanced at the half-demon. He could not wait for lunchtime. He would be able to get away from such an irksome bastard and in the company of someone he was quickly deciding was an angel, Kikyo. Yes, he had another lunch date with the strange human.

The dog demon was starting to consider Kikyo an angel for several reasons and the top one was that she made him forget about that a self-important, disrespectful, hanyou bastard like Naraku even existed. She was an extraordinary break in the day; hell, sometimes in the week. It was a pleasure to sit with her and have intelligent conversation after dealing with hordes of fools. Something about her presence just soothed him and the sound her low, somber voice washed away any grime that was left on him by Naraku or any other annoyance in his life. She had to be an angel to make him feel that way and he had only known her for a few weeks.

Another reason Sesshomaru thought of Kikyo as an angel was because of how odd she was as a human. There was something off about Kikyo as a human. She was interested in weird things, aside for demon art. She was into archery, as was her sisters; he was willing to bet that her sisters were just as odd as she was, even though he had not met them. She was into almost anything that another person might dub archaic in his opinion. He thought that it was strange, but he liked it about her.

"Are you paying attention?" Naraku demanded to know, interrupting Sesshomaru's thoughts on Kikyo.

"Oh, you're still talking. That would explain the blood pouring from my ears," the dog demon remarked in a bored tone.

"You're not taking this serious," the half-demon growled in anger. He was so sick of the demon prince that he just wanted to use his youki to tear him apart in a matter of seconds and paint the damned office with his royal blood.

"And you are? Listen, half-demon, your work is less than presentable on all fronts, so until you get your act together, do not question anything about me," Sesshomaru stated with a bit of a snarl. He was ready to just slit Naraku in two vertically because the half-breed was just going above and beyond when it came to be being annoying.

"You miserable dog," Naraku snarled.

"Watch your mouth, filthy half-breed," Sesshomaru countered.

The two males eyed each other; it seemed like they had hit their limit. It was amazing considering that they had already put up with each other for almost a month. They were ready to get to it, but then suddenly the phone rang. The dog demon was closest to the device, so he answered; it might be an important business call, after all. He was not about to allow Naraku to mess with his money.

The ebony-haired male watched as Sesshomaru exchanged words with whoever it was on the phone. The full demon glanced at his partner on occasion before hanging up the phone. He then walked to the door and it seemed that he was just going to leave without letting Naraku know what that phone call was about or as if he was not going to finish what they had not even started.

"What was that about?" Naraku demanded to know.

"Just the clients. They wanted to know what we had," Sesshomaru informed his bothersome partner.

"What did you tell them?" the half-breed inquired.

"What could I offer other than the fact that we had nothing? They would like us to come up with something soon," the platinum-haired demon stated as if that information was nothing important.

"Then where are you going?" Naraku asked.

"Nowhere that concerns you," Sesshomaru stated and then he left.

The full demon just needed to get out of the office. He was sick of dealing with the crimson-eyed hanyou. He did not want to think about the clients now breathing down their necks. He just did not feel like being stressed anymore. He was just going to be with his angel to unwind and maybe she could offer him some ideas as to what he should do. He did not make it a habit of talking about work with her, but at the moment, he could use some inspiration on the account before the clients decided to walk.

Sesshomaru pulled out his cell phone and called Kikyo to see where she was. He was leaving to meet her earlier than the time that they agreed on, but she claimed that she did not have much to do with herself since she was still unemployed. He had to remember to ask her about her employment situation, he told himself, as he waited for her to answer her phone.

"Hello, Sesshomaru," Kikyo greeted him over the phone.

"Hello, Kikyo. Where are you?" he asked. He suspected that she was at the museum, like she typically was. He thought that she should just work there, but he knew that she was much trained to be a doctor and he thought that was much more respectable than working in a museum.

"I'm walking through a park right now," she informed him.

"Where is this park?" he inquired.

Kikyo told him what he wanted to know and he disconnected the call after ordering her not to leave; it was not a harsh order, but it was still an order. It was a habit of his because he was used to being in command and in control. He strolled off to where she said she was, which was not very far. He was within the park in less than five minutes and he caught her heavenly scent in under five seconds. He easily made it to her; she was sitting across from a fountain.

"Kikyo," Sesshomaru said as he moved over to her.

"Sesshomaru," she replied as she turned to him.

"What are you doing in this park?" he asked curiously as he looked around at all of the children running around, people walking their dogs, and other park activities.

"My little sister had me here when she met with her friends and then she left me all alone," the chocolate-eyed woman explained with an amused look on her face.

"Your little sister sounds something like my little sister," he commented.

"Perhaps all little sisters alike. Should you not be at work?" she inquired in a curious tone.

"I had to get out of there," he admitted as he sat down next to her.

"Why?"

"No reason that is important," he replied. He really hated thinking about his job when he was with her. He just wanted to enjoy her company. "When are you going to get a job?" he asked to change the subject.

"I am not sure," she admitted.

Kikyo was reluctant to go out and get work because Naraku had threatened her a few times that he promised to get her fired if she did continue on with her career. He wanted her home for some reason that she could not figure out, but she was certain that it had something to do with him wanting to get on her nerves. She knew better than to try and call his bluff as he had already almost gotten her fired from the clinic that she used to work at in their old home city.

She knew that Naraku wanted her to be a docile housewife and she might not have had much of a problem with that if the hanyou was not so completely twisted in his thinking. He wanted her like that because he would like to see her plain miserable. He really just wanted a puppy to kick that would crawl back for another hit. She would not give him the satisfaction; she would never be anyone's whipping girl. But, she was not looking to find employment either.

"You should get a job. Surely you are a competent physician," Sesshomaru said.

"I suppose," Kikyo agreed.

"The world could use as many good doctors as it can get," he pointed out.

"I suppose," she repeated.

The petite female was not looking to share why she was not looking for work. She never told Sesshomaru about the misshapen relationship that was her marriage. She was not looking to think about her husband while she was with Sesshomaru. She was just looking to enjoy his company and she always did when he was around.

There was something about Sesshomaru's calm presence that calmed her down. Sure, she always appeared tranquil, but of course that was not the case, not with the husband that she had. Sometimes, she just had all sorts of emotions raging inside of her that she wished that she could ignore, but when she was with Sesshomaru, the emotions became still and she truly felt at peace.

The dog demon was a refreshing change from her husband. He was not methodical like Naraku. Sure, he believed that he was the greatest thing that had ever been created and Naraku was the same, but Sesshomaru went about it differently. He was not out to prove that he was great; to him, it was obvious. Naraku fought and scratched and kicked to try to let the world know how great he was. Sesshomaru did not need anyone to validate his existence like the hanyou did.

"Well, since we are in a park, why don't we take a walk?" Sesshomaru suggested since it seemed like Kikyo was not up for talking about finding a job. He did wonder why that was since she had spoken about enjoying her work, when she had it anyway.

"Sounds wonderful," she answered.

The dog demon climbed to his feet and then put his hand out for Kikyo. She did not even think as she took his hand and they walked hand and hand through the park. They looked like a very odd couple in the park because, first of all, they were a human and a demon together. They also appeared rather sophisticated, a bit too much for a simple walk in the park if they were on a date; well, people thought that they were on a date. They did not think about it much.

Sesshomaru did note that the slender hand in his own was soft and warm. He enjoyed holding onto Kikyo. He glanced down at her hand and noticed her wedding band. It was not the first time that he noticed the ring. He wondered if she was truly married or it was a ploy to keep men away from her, not that it worked if it was a ploy.

The golden-eyed male had seen men trying to pick up Kikyo when he was on his way to meet her. He usually got very angry when he witnessed such scenes. Well, how dare anyone talk to his angel? The nerve of such males. He always stalked over to them as quietly as possible and then scowled down at them since Kikyo not being interested did not seem to get through to them. They did understand that an angry dog demon was not something that they wanted in their lives, so they would quickly vacate the area and leave his angel alone.

If Kikyo was married, why did she never speak of the man, Sesshomaru wondered. He supposed that he should just ask, but he was not very interested in hearing the answer. He knew that he would not like it if she was married. He would not admit why he did not want her to be married, but he knew that he would prefer it if she was not.

"So, do you know where your little sister ran off to?" Sesshomaru asked to get his mind off of if the wedding band was legitimate or not.

"I have no idea. She merely asked for money and then ran off," Kikyo replied with a small smile.

"She is really starting to sound very much like my little sister," he commented with a small smile of his own.

Kikyo only smiled more; she always smiled more whenever Sesshomaru smiled because it was so rare. She liked seeing him smile; she especially liked when she caused him to smile. It warmed her in a way that no man had ever done. She considered it something unique to their friendship and nothing deeper than that, but part of her knew that it was something deeper.

"So, where shall we dine today?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Hmm…" Kikyo thought on the question. "Follow me," she replied while gently pulling him away.

Sesshomaru did question what she was doing, but the ebony-haired woman did not explain herself. She merely continued to lightly tug him by the hand and he allowed that. He was curious as to where they were going, but he now knew that she was not going to explain herself.

Kikyo ignored the fact that she felt a bit giddy around Sesshomaru and that was why she was pulling him as if she was some eager school girl. She led him out of the park and down the street. She then stopped in front of a pizza shop. She went to the window that was on the outside instead of going into the place.

"Two slices please," Kikyo requested from the pizza-maker, who nodded and put two waiting slices into the oven.

"Two slices of what?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Wait a moment," Kikyo told him.

Sesshomaru was utterly baffled. He had never been to a pizza parlor. He did not eat human food, even though he had a completely human little sister and step-mother. He never really paid attention to what they ate, either. It just did not interest him.

"What is this?" the dog demon inquired as the pizza-maker brought them their two slices.

"The one universal life-saver," the petite female answered as she went into her shoulder bag, apparently about to pay for their meal.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sesshomaru inquired when he noticed her reaching for her wallet.

"It's only three dollars, Sesshomaru," she argued because she knew that he was about to make a big thing about her paying. He was rather old-fashion in the sense that he was not willing to let her pay for anything when she was in his company.

"Then I can easily pay," he countered.

"As can I," she stated.

"But, you won't," he soundly commanded.

Kikyo pouted just a little bit; he was the only person that she would dare do such a thing in front of. Not even her sisters had ever seen her do anything close to pouting. He paid her expression little mind, except for noting that it was cute, and he paid for their pizza. She sighed; she would not mind paying for something just once, if only to show her gratitude to Sesshomaru for being such a comforting presence.

"Now, what do we do with this mess?" the dog demon inquired while staring down at his pizza.

"We eat it, Sesshomaru," Kikyo replied in a dry tone as she picked her slice and bit the tip of the slice.

"Right here? While standing up?" he asked in disbelief.

"You've never eaten pizza with your little sister, I take it?" she countered.

"You have?"

"She is the one that continues to have me and my older sister walking around while we eat slices. Come on, let's go back to the park and stroll around the lake," she proposed.

"All right," he concurred with a bit of a puzzled face.

Sesshomaru picked up his slice, which was sitting limply on a white paper plate. He sniffed the food as they walked off to go back to the park. He turned his nose up at it and Kikyo noticed.

"Just try it, Sesshomaru," she told him.

"You make it sound so simple," he replied.

"It is. Look," she said and then she took another bite of her pizza. She had to admit that the little corner shop had some of the better pizza that she had tasted.

She told him once more to try it and he made a noise of protest; he was very against the idea of eating something that looked like a cheesy mess. He put the slice to his mouth and took a very small bite into the so-called food. He seemed surprised that the pizza did not kill him, Kikyo noted, as he swallowed the tiny piece.

"You are being much too dramatic," the petite woman commented.

Sesshomaru only frowned. He bit into the pizza again, not finding the slice entirely terrible. Kikyo noted that the dog demon was eating the pizza despite the fact that he was attempting to make it seem as if the food was the grossest thing that he could possibly ingest. She did not say anything and just continued to eat her slice. They silently walked around the lake in the park, enjoying each other and the pizza.

--------------

Kikyo sat at home on the sofa. She was listening to some jazz music while working in her sketchbook. She could only do sketches in the apartment because there was no space for her to set up to do her sculpting; she was willing to bet that her "darling" husband had gotten the apartment just because of that. It was all right, though; she was fine with drawing.

It had been a while since she drew anything aside for family members. She used to draw them because she missed them, living so far away and trapped with Naraku. Lately though, she had been sketching other things, just things that she either saw in the street and happened to recall or thoughts of things that she would sculpt if she ever got the chance to do so again.

She had been doing such work since about the time that she met Sesshomaru. The soothing affect that he had on her seemed to beckon her to work on some art, even though her muse had not really sunk its teeth in yet. She was content, as she generally was after having an afternoon with the handsome dog demon, and then she heard keys in the door. Apparently, her feeling was not going to last long.

"Kikyo," Naraku practically growled as he entered the apartment.

"What?" she replied as she closed her sketchbook and tucked it underneath her arm.

"Kikyo," he growled again.

"What?" she repeated and then she caught sight of him. "Dear lord, you're drunk," she realized.

"It's that dog bastard's fault. He's ruining my account," Naraku snarled.

"How so?" she asked as if she cared.

She had already heard her fair share of his "that dog bastard" rants. She did not even know who the "dog bastard" was because her irritable husband never used his real name; he was always "that dog bastard." She had come to understand that her spouse and whoever he was partnered with at work were not getting along and the account was suffering because of it.

"Are you questioning me?" he inquired with a snarl. "You're just like that dog bastard, always mocking me and questioning me. I know what I'm doing. I know more than him. I'm better than him. This is my account and I won't let him ruin it," he declared and he nearly stumbled over while making a motion with his fist.

"All right, you're drunk," she stated and she was just going to leave him to his rambling.

"Where are you going?" he demanded to know and he grabbed her by her pale wrists. He squeezed and caused her to wince. "Does it hurt, dearest?" he inquired, obviously from the way his crimson eyes lit up, he delighted in her agony.

"Release me now or this will end with you being an unrecognizable pile of ashes on our floor," she informed him.

Naraku seemed to think on the promise for a moment. He stared into her chocolate eyes and then he slowly released her. Kikyo retreated into their bedroom and locked the door. If he entered that room, she was not going to allow him to leave unless someone had a broom or if she opened a window. He passed out on the sofa minutes after she left him alone.

----(Next day)

Sesshomaru met up with Kikyo for lunch as usual. He was not going to allow her to lead him off for more human food, he decided, even though he silently admitted that it was not as dreadful as he thought it would be. He just would not want to eat such a thing everyday. He doubted that it was healthy, but he supposed occasionally he could indulge in more pizza with her.

The dog demon walked to the museum and he found Kikyo by the painting that always seemed to haunt her. She was sitting on the ivory bench that was located in front of the painting. Before he got to her, his keen golden eyes spotted her fumbling with her sleeves. He craned a curious eyebrow as he marched toward her and sat down next to her.

"You're a bit early," the slim woman commented.

"I know," he conceded and he looked down at her wrists. Her sleeves were almost completely covering her hands, which was typical of her shirts. He just had never seen her mess with the sleeves before, so now he was curious as to why she had been doing such.

"Something wrong?" she asked when he noticed her eyeing her hands. She fought with herself to not bother sleeves again, but she did not want him to see the skin.

"No, nothing," he answered, still staring down at her hands.

"Then why are you looking at my hands?" she inquired.

"May I?" he asked, but he did not wait for an answer, which was typical of him. He reached for her arms and she tried to pull away, but she was not fast enough.

"Sesshomaru!" Kikyo protested while trying to pull her limbs back.

"What happened to you here?" he inquired in forceful tone as he caught sight of bruising around her slender, pale wrists.

"It's nothing," she stated. It was nothing as far as she was concerned. Her skin was very fair and the smallest things showed up on her body.

"This is something. Did someone hurt you? Who did this?" he demanded to know.

"Sesshomaru, release me," she demanded in return.

The dog demon frowned as he let her go. He was not going to let the bruises go, though. How dare someone damage his angel, he mentally snarled. No one touched what was his, so it was out of the question for someone to hurt what was his. He was going to find out who touched her and that person would pay.

"Who in the hell did that to you?" he inquired. "And I won't ask another time," he added in.

"My husband," she answered through gritted teeth. He wanted to know so damn bad, then there was his precious answer.

Sesshomaru frowned deeper. So, the wedding band was the truth. She was married. He could not believe it, but he was more outraged now than when he saw the bruises and he thought that was as furious as he could get. He had been wrong on so many levels.

--------------

Next time: if Sesshomaru is so upset, then why in the hell are he and Kikyo going out for dinner and a show?


	5. Falling from grace

I don't own these characters.

5: Fall from grace

Sesshomaru had probably never scowled so deeply in all of his life. He doubted that he had ever heard such horrible news in all of his days either. The woman that he had dubbed an angel and that soothed his very soul, which most people would not even know he had, was married. She was married and possibly abused considering the bruises that he discovered on her wrists.

"Your husband did that?" the dog demon asked in a controlled tone. He was furious with her for being married, especially to a man that probably battered her.

"Yes. He grabbed me momentarily too hard," Kikyo answered in a controlled tone of her own. She was upset that the golden-eyed male had not just let it go. She did not want him to know about her husband. She had enjoyed pretending that Naraku did not exist while she was with Sesshomaru, but now he knew and things were probably going to change between them now.

"All of that from a mere grab?" he inquired to be certain. He could hardly believe that a grab could do such damage to her skin.

"Yes, I bruise easily. See," she replied and she showed him her arms, which were now bruising because he had grabbed her.

Sesshomaru actually frowned even deeper than before. "Did he hurt you?" he inquired in his usual tone, trying to show that the new bruises did not bother him, even though they did. After all, he had marred her lovely form.

"He only grabbed me," she repeated in a tense tone.

"Why would he do such a thing? He is your husband," Sesshomaru pointed out.

"That he is," she sighed. She did not like being reminded of that fact and that could almost be heard in her voice.

Sesshomaru was not sure what he wanted to do with the new information. He had grown attracted to Kikyo in the time that he knew her, so it bothered him to find out that she had a husband. It seemed like she toyed with him all of the time that they were together. But, that did not kill the attraction at all.

The information did upset the dog demon. The little woman before him was his, yet she was someone else's too. He wanted to tear something apart, mostly her husband. But, he did not even know who that bastard was. He really did not know what to do.

"Kikyo…" Sesshomaru trailed off because he wanted to be certain that the next words he spoke were really the ones that he wanted to express. He was not sure if he wanted to let her know just how angry he was or if he wanted to let her know that he could handle the new information, even though that was more a lie than anything else at the moment. He was furious and he really desired to let her know that.

"You don't have to say anything," Kikyo told him before he decided to let his temper get the better of him.

The chocolate-eyed female realized that she had pretty much lied to Sesshomaru. She knew that any male spending time with her was not looking to just be friends. She merely hoped that was the case because she truly enjoyed being around the platinum-haired male. He was so soothing and calming, but she supposed that was the end of that.

"It was a pleasure meeting you and spending time with you," she said gracefully and she turned to leave.

Sesshomaru watched the woman he believed to be an angel walk out of the museum and pretty much out of his life. He told himself that he did not care about that she was leaving and she was lucky that she had left the place before he decided to cut her down. Why should he want to be around a liar? A woman that tried to string him along? And to think, he almost fell for it; he almost fell for her.

He should not have expected anything less from a human, he told himself. They were the lowest of the low and there were no exceptions; obviously, he did not count Rin in with humans. He could not believe that he had nearly allowed that woman to get the better of him.

The dog demon went to lunch alone that day and tried not to think of what would be happening if Kikyo was sitting across from him. She would probably be going on about some artist that he had never heard of, but would look into later on and discover that she was absolutely right about whatever it she was saying. Or she might ask him questions about his travels around the world. It was a dream of hers to go around the world, checking out as many museums and things as she could, just experiencing other cultures. She wanted to do so much and he noted that she always wanted to do them with her sisters.

Sesshomaru shook the thoughts of Kikyo out of his head. He told himself that he did not care about her or what was going on in her mind anymore. She was no one to him. He was not interested in her, not anymore.

Despite the fact that he wanted to not care anymore, the fact that she was not with him at the moment when she could have been, quietly bothered him. He already missed the sound of her voice, the warm look in her cocoa eyes when she gazed at him, and just the sight of her lovely pale face. He missed the atmosphere that she seemed to bring with her, the calming, soothing, almost affectionate atmosphere. But, even her aura was a lie, he told himself.

How could she be affectionate toward him when she had the nerve to be married? Her affections were for some other male. Some male he was certain did not deserve it because that warmth should be his. She should be his.

How could some other male be worthy of her? She was a special creature and her husband obviously did not serve her well if she was out making the acquaintance of other men. Her husband did not seem to helping her fulfill her dreams either. He would take her around the world several times and make sure that she saw every museum in existence to make her happy. She would never think to need another male if she was his.

"Stop thinking about the filthy human," he ordered himself.

Sesshomaru sighed; his mind was betraying him. He was not interested in thinking of a woman that he lied to him, unless of course, he was plotting her demise. She had disrespected him and played with him by not informing him that she was married and by letting him grow attached to her. Yes, he should find someway to destroy her if he was going to do anything. He would consider traveling that road, but for the moment, he had to go back and deal with Naraku.

The dog demon did not feel up to bothering with his half-breed partner. The crimson-eyed hanyou had already gotten on his nerves all that morning, but now he was more riled up because of what happened with Kikyo; not that he wanted to acknowledge that she had any affect on him at all. He marched straight to his office and went to his desk, silently hoping that Naraku did not come in. His hope was not fulfilled.

Naraku burst into Sesshomaru's office seconds after the nobleman had seated himself. They both frowned while locking eyes. Sesshomaru felt a headache coming on too before the irksome half-demon could even open his mouth.

"What?" the dog demon growled his demand.

"Are you going to do any work on this?" Naraku demanded to know.

"Are you?" Sesshomaru riposted.

"Stop answering a question with a question. You have no put in any quality work on this whole project. The clients are breathing down my neck and I can't carry your sorry ass," Naraku declared.

Sesshomaru stared at Naraku and wondered when did the little hanyou's brain rot away. No one carried him. He pulled his weight. It was not his fault that Naraku was coming up with junk. He silently admitted that he was not coming up with his best logos, but they wanted something ridiculously cute and he was not that kind of artist. So, it was not like they hated his work like they actually hated all of the crap that Naraku dared to show them.

"Don't you have anything to say for yourself? I can't believe that my clients thought you would be worth anything to this account," Naraku declared.

"I see and you've been the light of the sun on this particular project. Listen carefully, half-breed as I will not repeat myself, until you find yourself doing something worthwhile, do not question the effort that I am putting forth," Sesshomaru ordered the repulsive hanyou.

"There's nothing wrong with what I've done," Naraku argued.

"Then why have they rejected everything that you have showed them?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"Because it was paired with your shitty art," the half-breed stated.

Sesshomaru, who was already on edge thanks to his lunch hour, was now over the edge. He tore himself from his seat and methodically marched over to the damnable hanyou and glared down at him. He noticed how daring the fool returned his gaze.

"I would watch my tongue if I were you, filth," Sesshomaru growled as he grabbed the half-breed by the throat with speed that Naraku did not expect.

"You think this bothers me?" Naraku inquired and then he felt claws pressing into his flesh. A couple of tentacles sprouted from the hanyou's back and he was intending to counterattack.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you either. Unless you're suicidal," the dog demon informed his captive.

"What do you know?" Naraku snarled. He was going to tear the bastard dog apart with his tentacles.

"I know that I could melt your head off of your shoulders before your disgusting tentacles could touch me. Now, if you wish to call my bluff, feel free. I would not lament your loss in the slightest and I would only get a new office to not have to live with the permanent stench that you would leave behind," the platinum-haired male stated in a cool, calculating tone.

Naraku hesitated and Sesshomaru no longer felt the desire to play with the fool. He flung the half-breed out of his office as if the crimson-eyed male was worthless; as far as Sesshomaru was concerned, his partner was worthless. Naraku impacted the wall on the opposite side of Sesshomaru's office and he cracked the plaster. Sesshomaru casually shut the door to his office to not even have to look at sorry excuse for a half-demon.

The nobleman returned to his desk and sighed. He massaged his temples, hoping to ease the tension that was building in his brain thanks to Kikyo and Naraku. The fact that his work was not going well from an artistic point did not even get to make it to his list of annoyances because Kikyo and Naraku were taking up the whole list, but the problem was predominately his former cocoa-eyed angel.

The dog demon was very upset knowing that Kikyo was spoken for. He wanted her. She was one of the few things on the planet that did not bother him; well, had not bothered him before he knew that she was married. He was trying to tell himself to stop thinking about it and to not worry about it. He did not care about her, he promised himself.

Kikyo was just a worthless human, on the same level as a hanyou, maybe even lower; well, it was what Sesshomaru told himself. He did not care about someone that was lower than an insect. Kikyo was nothing. She was no one. He was not interested in her in any way other than possibly teaching her to never cross him. He was done with that trifling human wench unless he was making her feel his wrath. Yes, that was it, he promised himself.

--------------

Kikyo was visibly upset over what happened between her and Sesshomaru, but luckily, she was alone, so no one was around to notice. It was a good thing that she did not have an appointment to be with her sisters or she would have been explaining all sorts of things for the whole afternoon just because of the expression on her face.

She felt rather depressed now that she knew that Sesshomaru was going to be out of her life. He had been a strange light in her life. He had made her feel at ease, comfortable. It was something that she was not very used to, especially around a demon male. And now, he was gone. She supposed that the only thing that was left to keep her sane was her sisters.

She decided to go home; it seemed like the best place for her to be with the way that she felt. She doubted that Naraku would be in anytime soon, so she could be miserable alone. It was safe to be dejected in the enclosed area of her own.

Her brain began to tell her that it was wrong for her to be upset over a demon exiting her life. Sesshomaru was just a demon. Sure, he brought her comfort into her world, but she had survived before him and she would survive after him. She always went on; it was what she was taught by life.

She decided to go to a convenient store to buy some junk food before ending up at her apartment. She thought it would help ease her mind, even though she would prefer to not admit that her mind needed easing. Still, she went and brought some junk food; ice cream and cookies. Eating junk food was a bad habit that she and her sisters had from when they were feeling less than pleased with how the days were going.

She went home and cracked open the cookies while putting on some music. She grabbed her sketchbook and thought that she might be able to do some drawing. She curled up on the sofa with the cookies near the edge of the couch. She ended up drawing her right hand from lack of inspiration; she could draw with both of her hands and alternated between them when she was just practicing. She occasionally picked up a cookie and ate it.

Kikyo lost track of time and before she knew it, she was hearing keys in the door. She glanced at the clock on the wall and noticed that it was about time for Naraku to come in. She hoped that he was not drunk again, but in case he was, she decided to prepare mentally for him.

She closed her sketch book and put it away. She closed her cookies too; she did not feel like eating when her husband was around. She watched him stumble into the apartment; apparently, it was too much to ask for him to not be drunk.

"Kikyo!" Naraku bellowed as he slammed the door shut.

"I'm standing right here," she pointed out. She was not even five feet away from him, so she did not see what he was yelling about.

"Why didn't you make dinner?" he demanded to know while glancing into the kitchen.

"I never make dinner," she reminded him. She did not make dinner for him anyway. She would prepare it for herself at home, but never for him.

"You are quite the worthless mate, aren't you?" he practically snarled.

Kikyo decided against answering that. Why deal with him when he was intoxicated? She did not even like dealing with him when he was in his right frame of mind, which was relatively speaking because even then, he was a bully and sadist. She was not in the mood to even play with him tonight. She had her own wounds to mend.

She turned and was going to retreat into the bedroom as she usually did when he was in the apartment. He knew better than to follow her in there, even if he thought that he was more powerful than she was. She just wanted to be alone, especially since she now knew that she was going to have to bother with Naraku without the comforting afternoons with Sesshomaru.

Naraku was not looking to let her leave just yet. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him. She was about to demand that he release her, but he beat her to talking.

"Do you know that dog bastard is going to ruin me? I've been building myself and now he's going to ruin me. No, I won't let him do that," Naraku said.

"Naraku, you're drunk," she stated once more.

"I can't let him do that. I'm going to get him off of this account. I won't let him bring me down with him. Him and his shitty artwork. I definitely won't be brought down by one arrogant dog, no," he said.

"You are drunk," she repeated, but he was not listening to word that she said. He was in a ranting mood it seemed and was holding her just to make sure that he had someone to share his evil plot with.

"I refuse to let him tear down what I have. I will be recognized. I will be heard. I'm going go speak with our clients personally. I'm going to tell them just what that dog bastard does all day and I'm going to get them to drop him. They don't need him when they have me anyway. It'll teach that ass to throw me into a wall. I'll ruin him before he can ruin me. I'll show him my power," Naraku proclaimed.

Kikyo sighed and just let him ramble on about how he was going to talk the clients into taking that "dog bastard" off of the account. He let her in on everything that he was going to tell the clients when he met up with them; she was not really listening to him, but he seemed to think that she was and that was what mattered. He told her how he planned to fly out to meet with the clients in person to make it seem like he was very concerned about their account when in fact he was only concerned about his reputation and their money. It was good news to her because it meant that he was going to be gone for the weekend, so now all she had to do was make it through the week.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru was irritable, more so than usual. His annoyance could be seen on his face, which was rare. He was typically stoic in appearance at all time. His co-worker believed that he probably would not even blink if he was to have his arm chopped off, yet now, they were able to tell that something was bothering him. They just did not know what that something was; they assumed that Naraku was finally getting to him because that was the only explanation that had and he had just thrown the half-demon into the wall a couple of days ago.

Really, he was not even thinking about Naraku anymore. The half-breed had not polluted his office with his presence and he had not opened his mouth to Sesshomaru since the dog demon tossed him into that wall. No, the thing that was bothering Sesshomaru was that he already missed Kikyo and he had only been without her company for a couple of days. It also bothered him that her absence bothered him.

He should not care about her after the way that she attempted to toy with him, as he looked at her not telling him that she was married. But, he had grown fond of her from the brief time that he spent with her. He longed to be with her, just around her. She eased his soul, something that he did not even know he had until she came along.

The dog demon did not know what he should do. Should he try to bear being without her? Should he let her go? Should he try to at least recapture the friendship that they had? Should he try to go for more? Or should he just look to get revenge against her? Usually, he would have gone with that last option without hesitating, but he could not do that when it came to the woman that he believed was an angel.

The way that he was feeling, he knew that he would not feel better if he hurt Kikyo. He already knew that he would just feel worse if she was injured in any way. He was still bothered by the fact that he had bruised her by accident when he grabbed her in the museum to examine her wrists. If he was upset with himself over an accident, he could not even fathom how he would feel if he purposely caused her some kind of distress.

Well, he doubted that he could just let her go. He had not seen her for two days and he felt as if he had been run over several times by a speeding bus. Everything was growing increasing irksome and he felt like he might snap at any moment. He knew that if he could just see her face, hear her voice, anything involving her, he would feel calm and ready to deal with the garbage that the rest of the world was looking to throw at him.

So, it seemed that he was really only left with two options; he could try to recapture what they had or he could try for more. At the moment, he would settle on attempting to recapture their friendship and he doubted that would be very hard. He was, after all, the great Sesshomaru. How hard could it be to get back a friend? They had not even had an argument, really, so it was not even like he would have to apologize. Yes, he was certain that he could get her back without any problem.

He only had to think of something worthwhile for Kikyo to agree to meet with him. The first thing that came to mind was a museum, but he did not think that was big enough. After all, she could go to a museum with her elder sister. He needed something unique. What would an interesting angel like Kikyo like and what would he be able to make it through?

He had not gone to the movies in ages and refused to give them any of his hard earned money; he would not even take Rin to the movies. He supposed that she might appreciate a play and the city was full of plays that held some potential. He guessed that he could take her to a play and maybe out to dinner. He had his doubts that it was appropriate to take a married woman out on what might appear to be a date, but he really did not care. If she agreed, he would take her. If her husband was doing right by her in the first place, Sesshomaru figured that she would not have sought his friendship, unless humans were that strange.

Now, he would have to look into plays or some other form of theater. As he searched for some form of entertainment, he was informed that he had some luck after all. It turned out Naraku was going to be gone on Friday. Well, now he wanted to celebrate. He would be without that pest for three whole days. Perhaps there was at least one merciful god, he considered.

Sesshomaru made his plans for Friday. He got tickets to a show that he heard was worth a look and he made reservations at a fantastic restaurant to celebrate the fact that he would be half-breed-free for a day. He then called the one thing that would make everything totally perfect.

"Sesshomaru?" Kikyo answered her phone in a surprised tone. She had not been expecting to hear from him ever again.

"Kikyo, I was wondering if you are free Friday," the dog demon stated. It seemed like he completely forgot about the interaction that they had days ago, but that was not the case. He just chose to ignore it.

"I was planning to spend the day with my sisters," she answered. Since Naraku was going to be gone, she decided to spend the whole weekend with her sisters. Kaede had cheered when she shared those plans with the pair.

"Is there no way to talk you into joining me for a show and dinner?" he inquired.

"Joining you?" she echoed in a deadpan tone. She could not believe he really wanted her company anymore and she thought that he might be joking with her, even though she was aware that he did not joke.

"Yes, join me. I have already purchased us some very good seats at a show I heard was halfway decent. I have also made reservations at one of my favorite restaurants and have told them to give us a very choice wine," he explained. It did not occur to him that it might be helpful if he apologized for his behavior when they last met, or at the very least apologize for bruising her. He was the great Sesshomaru, after all; he did not make mistakes that needed apologizing.

"You have gone through great lengths to tempt me into agreeing," she commented.

"It will be a good outing for us. It would keep us away from the museum, which is necessary because too much of a good thing is supposedly unhealthy…not that I agree with such thinking," he replied.

"I know you don't. I suppose I could spend some time with you Friday. I would still have the night and weekend to be with my sisters," she stated.

"Excellent. I shall pick you up in the evening. Is that all right?" he asked because of her circumstances.

"It's fine," she answered; Naraku was leaving in the morning.

"All right," he said. He was pleased that she had not been very difficult. He supposed that she wanted to see him as much as he wanted to see her and why not? He was the great Sesshomaru after all.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru waited outside Kikyo's apartment building. He noted that she did not live too far from him; it was a good thing because he planned to see more of her. He watched her as she exited, wearing her usual clothing, which he did not mind. She had her own unique style and he would not call it informal, but he would not call it formal either. It was fine for almost any situation, though.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," she apologized.

"Not at all," he replied. He had only just gotten there a minute ago.

The pair of friends went out to the show and enjoyed it. Sesshomaru knew that he enjoyed it because Kikyo found some substance in it. It was a good thing that she could find meaning in plenty of things or he would have been going to demand his money back. Instead, he sat through the event and was entertained by it through Kikyo. He would not mind experiencing more things in such a manner.

They went to dinner after the show. It was much like their lunch dates. They discussed various topics for a few minutes at a time. It seemed that they did not care about what they conversed on; it was more that they just enjoyed being around each other.

"Sesshomaru, you don't have to park," Kikyo stated as the dog demon was doing just that as he came to her building.

"I do if I want to walk you up," he replied.

"You don't have to do that either," she informed him.

"It's rather late and I would prefer to see you safely to your door," he countered.

"It is unnecessary," she argued.

"Let me be the judge of that," he stated.

Kikyo gave up the argument; she could see that Sesshomaru would not bend on the issue. Sesshomaru was not sure why he was insisting on going with her to her apartment. Was he attempting to see what kind of environment she lived in? Was he hoping to catch a glimpse of her husband? Or at least get an idea of what kind of man she was married to? What was up there for him? Perhaps a nightcap, part of him dared to consider, even though there was no guarantee that she would even think to let him in, even if her husband was not home.

Sesshomaru parked the car and they both exited the vehicle. They rode the elevator in silence and walked to her apartment door when they arrived at her floor. She put the keys in and as she worked the locks, she wondered if she should invite him in. Would he think poorly of her if she did such a thing? She was not looking to do anything with him, but she thought that it would be polite to invite him if only for a moment. Nothing would come of it.

"Would you like to come in, Sesshomaru? Perhaps I could make us some tea," Kikyo offered.

Sesshomaru thought on the proposal for a moment. Could he intrude in another man's home while coveting that man's wife? He did have some manners as a nobleman. Did he even want to chance seeing a picture of the man that Kikyo was married to? After all, knowing what the man looked like would probably upset him. Did he want to be upset again after such a great day?

--------------

Next time: Will Sesshomaru take Kikyo up on her proposal and enter her home? If so, will they really just be having some tea?


	6. Sinner angel

I don't own these characters.

This is where the rating goes up.

6: Sinner angel

Sesshomaru decided to follow Kikyo into her apartment and take her up on the offer of tea. He doubted that there was some hidden meaning beyond the offer; he did not think that Kikyo was that type of female. He still would like to be in her company for a while longer, even if it meant suffering through pictures of her with her husband or her husband's horrible scent coating the apartment or something like that.

"What kind of tea would you like?" Kikyo inquired while hanging her keys up on a hook by the door.

Sesshomaru did not answer right away. He was distracted by an odd odor permeating through the apartment; a familiar odor at that. It smelled like a certain half-breed that he wanted to tear to pieces.

"Sesshomaru," Kikyo said.

"I'll take whatever you're having," the dog demon replied. He drank tea on occasion, but did not have a particular favorite one that he needed to have all of the time.

"All right. Make yourself at home while I get things ready," she told him.

The golden-eyed male nodded and looked around the apartment while Kikyo went into the kitchen to fix their tea. He continued to catch that horrid aroma and he hated to think what it might mean. He looked around the place for evidence of what her husband looked like, but there were no pictures on the wall to speak of. There was only junk around the house as far as he was concerned and he doubted that Kikyo would think to buy the stuff, so he concluded that her husband lacked taste, which only backed up what his nose was telling him.

"Kikyo," Sesshomaru said.

"Yes?" Kikyo replied.

The nobleman turned to give her his complete attention and noticed that she had her back to him. She was leaning over the counter, preparing their tea. He let out a slow breath as inappropriate thoughts marched through his head when his golden gaze fell upon her form. He took a step closer to her and the thoughts were not getting any better as he had a look of the kitchen.

His brain was thinking about how much he would enjoy it if he took Kikyo at that very moment on the very counter she was working on in the very position that she was in. And then he dared to think of having her against the refrigerator. He ordered his brain to cease thinking that way because he doubted that things were going to go that way and he was only going to frustrate himself.

Kikyo was a respectable married woman. Surely she would not consider any adulterous acts, even with him, Sesshomaru told his mind. And then he mentally scoffed. If he really wanted Kikyo, he was certain that he could have her just like any other woman, but why would he want a human? Maybe it was because he did not review her as a human, but as an angel. He was just trying to make up excuses to avoid doing what he knew he wanted to do, his brain accused him.

"Sesshomaru?" Kikyo said because he said her name, but he never elaborated on what he wanted.

"It's nothing. Where is your husband?" the demon inquired.

"He went on some trip," she replied in a dismissive tone, which let him know that she did not want to speak about him and that was fine by her guest. "Sesshomaru, how do you take you tea?" she asked.

"I'll have mine the way you have yours," he answered.

"All right."

Sesshomaru turned his attention back to the things around the apartment. "What are all of these things around this your place?" he asked.

"My husband has a bad habit of collecting little bobbles that happen to catch his eye. It seems that things don't have to match when it comes to his idea of how a place should look," she answered.

Sesshomaru nodded, even though she had her back to him and she could not see what he was doing. She was married to inferior being, he concluded. He wondered what would make her bind herself to someone lowly.

"Kikyo, why did you get married?" he inquired in his usual tone. He did not care if his question would be considered prying; he wanted answers.

"I thought that the outside that was presented to me was the truth," she answered with a bit of a sigh underneath her usual voice.

"And it wasn't?" he asked while seeming to glide over to her. He moved behind her and by her side. She glanced up at him; he enjoyed seeing his visage in her deep chocolate eyes.

"I was blind," she replied and then turned her attention back to what she was doing.

"Are you still blind?" he inquired while leaning down to her level. He was practically nuzzled in her neck because of where he was standing.

"I don't always believe what is presented is the truth now," she answered while moving away from him.

The dog demon did not react to her retreat. He merely stood back up to his proper height and watched her. It seemed that she was a jaded woman, which he had no problem with. She could be that way with her husband, but he was going to work beyond that. He was, after all, Sesshomaru; he was perfection.

"Understandable," Sesshomaru commented about her disbelief.

Kikyo did not reply and the demon exited the kitchen to look around again. He frowned as he took in the stench that was mixed in with her heavenly scent. Could it be that she really shared her home with that bastard half-demon? It disgusted him. How had that filthy half-breed convinced such a brilliant creature to take his unholy hand in marriage? Was he really that manipulative?

The petite woman in the apartment leaned against the wall in the kitchen while Sesshomaru walked around. She sighed and asked herself what it was she thought that she was doing. Her mind answered that she was having a friend over for tea and she nearly scoffed out loud from that response.

It was not like she had one of her sisters over. She had a man in her home at night after going on what most would consider it to be a date. Was she doing something foolish? It seemed that way when she plotted what happened in her mind, but although she was nervous, she did not currently feel the fool.

She considered that she had not felt the fool when she first fell for Naraku's schemes either. But, Sesshomaru was not Naraku, she silently argued. Even so, what could become of the night? What could become of them? Nothing. She was tied to a deceitful hanyou at the moment and even though she disliked him for the most part, she had made vows to him that she intended to keep to remain an honorable person.

Kikyo fixed the tea and cut two slices of cake; she had gone shopping earlier with the idea of buying some junk food to celebrate that she was Naraku-free for the weekend. She had planned to take the sweets to her sisters' apartment, but then Sesshomaru called and put that off for a day.

"Sesshomaru," Kikyo called to let him know that things were ready.

"This is an interesting place you have here. You got no say in anything about it, hmm?" Sesshomaru commented as he walked over to the small dining room table to join her.

"Not that I wanted one," she replied.

"Why not? Wouldn't you want something here that proclaims it your home too?" he asked as he took a seat.

"This is not my home," she answered.

The dog demon nodded to show that he understood. He sipped his tea and she did the same. He did not touch the piece of cake, but enjoyed watching her eat her piece. She noticed him watching her, but she did not say anything about it.

"You can have mine too, if you like," Sesshomaru offered her while pushing his dessert toward her.

"That's all right. You don't like cake?" she asked. While she had a bit of a sweet-tooth, she could not eat two whole pieces of cake back to back.

"I'm not very into sweets," he replied.

"No?" She was not really asking a question because she noticed through most of their lunches together, he never had a dessert with it.

"From what I can tell, you eat enough for the both of us," he remarked.

"I think that I shall try to change your mind for as long as we know each other," she commented.

Sesshomaru only half-smirked in response to that statement. He supposed that he could learn to like sweet things; he already liked her, after all. If she was his, he would never leave her alone in their dreary home; their home would not be dreary either. He would take her everywhere just to be in her radiant presence. He bet that if he always had her by his side, he would be able to tolerate the world much easier.

He continued to watch her and seemed to make a decision in a split second. He stood up and went over to her; she was hardly a foot away, but he seemed to be on her within the blink of an eye. He leaned down and captured her mouth with his own. He gently kissed her and she returned the embrace. She did not think to protest until he pulled away just a bit.

"Sesshomaru, we cannot do this," Kikyo stated.

"And we is that we cannot?" he inquired.

"I am…married," she forced the word out. She would love nothing more than to be able to be with him, but she was married. She had a husband and she had made vows to him. She would be faithful to those vows because her word was her most valuable possession.

"He does not deserve you," Sesshomaru stated in a firm tone.

"He is the one I have," she replied.

"No, he is not. I am the one that has you," the dog demon said.

"Sesshomaru, I cannot do this. I have a husband and I have made a promise," she said, hoping to get him to understand.

"Did he not also make a promise? Is he not supposed to honor, cherish, and protect you? Has he done any of that?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"Just because he cannot keep his word does not mean I do not have to keep mine," Kikyo argued. She stood up and put some distance between her and the nobleman.

Sesshomaru would later find the exchange endearing, but at the moment he was frustrated that she would stay true to the bastard that she was married to. She was arguing with him, perfection, to remain with some grimy half-breed bastard who he was certain was the same annoyance that he had to put with during the work week. There was no reason for her to do so, except that her word meant so much to her.

He looked at the distance she placed between them and calculated how long it would take for him to close it. He would be on her before she even realized that he moved, he concluded, but he did not move. He wanted to rationalize things just to make sure that she was comfortable with everything that happened and for her to understand why it was all right for her to give in.

"Kikyo, you gave your word to someone who did not exist. You gave your word to a man that lied to you and who will probably continue to lie to you," Sesshomaru pointed out.

"That doesn't make my word any less than it was at the time," Kikyo countered.

"It makes you unbound to such a vow. If you promised to never hurt someone because they made the same vow and then that person turned around and stabbed you in the heart, what would you do? You would only stand there and bleed because you gave your word not to hurt the person?" he inquired.

Kikyo thought on it for a moment. "I suppose it depends," she replied.

"What does it depend on?" he asked.

"Did the person purposely hurt me or not," she answered.

"Did this person purposely hurt you?" he inquired and she looked away. He waited a moment and silence reigned over the room. He decided to speak when it was clear that she was not. "You know what you want, Kikyo. What do I have to say for you to go with what you want?" he asked her.

"There is nothing you can say," she informed him.

"Is it that you don't trust me, Kikyo? You think that I am only here to manipulate you as he did?"

"I think that you only want one thing."

Sesshomaru smirked a bit. "You're right," he conceded. He doubted that they were thinking of the same thing, though.

"I know," she stated.

The dog demon then moved and the space between them disappeared. He stared down at her with intense golden eyes. She nearly gulped because of the sudden closeness, but she held it back. The problem was that he could smell just what she was going through and he could even hear her racing heart; she was like deer cornered by a hungry wolf.

"I want you," Sesshomaru told her. "I want you to be mine because you are. You are wasted on whoever it is you're married to. I will treat you the way that you should be, like I have, only better," he vowed.

"Sesshomaru," she whispered.

"Let me treat you like the angel you are," he said while caressing her pale cheek with two long fingers.

"I cannot…" she replied.

"You are."

Sesshomaru leaned down and kissed the petite woman again. She ordered herself to push him away, but she did not. She did not fight him in any way. She accepted the kiss because she did want it. And then she reminded herself that at one point in time, she wanted Naraku too and look at where that got her. It was then that she pushed him away.

The dog demon growled deep in his throat, but not loud enough for her to hear. He needed her to yield soon or the evening was not going to go as he wanted it. He needed her to stop being so irrational with keeping a promise to a liar.

"Sesshomaru, you should leave," Kikyo stated.

"And why should I do that?" he inquired.

"Because I want you to," she answered.

"That's not what you want, Kikyo," he said and he stepped closer to her. She backed away until she hit a wall. He stood in front of her, cutting off her escape.

"It is," she insisted.

"That's not what this is telling me," he commented and he placed two fingers on her heart. He could now feel it beating under his fingertips and he enjoyed it.

"This would not be right," she said.

'This is what you want. There is no right and wrong. There is only what you want and what you don't want," he retorted.

"Only in a demon's mind," she argued.

Sesshomaru smirked a bit as if he was amused. He enjoyed how she knew things considered for demons. Demons did not believe in right and wrong for the most part; there was only what they wanted and what they did not want. He wanted Kikyo and she wanted him, so in his mind, they should have been in bed already, too busy to be having a pointless discussion like the one they were having.

"In a demon's mind, but also in your heart. Your heart is telling you what is right and it is not agreeing with what your mouth is saying," he pointed out.

He was right, Kikyo silently conceded. She wanted him. She wanted the man that seemed to be everything that Naraku was not. She wanted the man that desired her as she was, that valued her opinion, and that enjoyed doing things with her rather than to her. But, what if that was just how Sesshomaru was presenting himself? What if he shed his skin like Naraku did? She would be a fool for the second time and her word would also be worthless.

"You have to trust me, Kikyo," Sesshomaru whispered, as if he knew that was what she was debating over in her head.

"Why do I have to?" Kikyo asked.

"Because you know that I will not hurt you, so you have to remind yourself that. You have seen me. I will continue to treat you as I have. This is not a trick. I would not waste my time on such," he explained.

Kikyo silently conceded once again; he was not the type that would waste his time trying to toy with her. Or at least, he did not seem like the type. Well, what was life without a chance, she asked herself. What if he was what she thought and what if he was being sincere? She would miss that opportunity if she lumped him in with Naraku, the man that his company actually eased the agony of being with.

"Nothing can come of this," Kikyo said in a whisper. She was married, after all. It was not like they could have an actual relationship or they could be anything to each other beyond friends.

"Many things can come from this," the dog demon seemed to promise her and he leaned down again.

Sesshomaru kissed Kikyo a third time and that time she melted into him. The embrace started out sweet, much like a peach, but grew more intense as it carried on. It became licentious in nature and more fervent than a forest fire. She had never had such a kiss before and he had never gotten so much satisfaction from such a kiss.

The dog demon debated with himself with just rutting Kikyo against the wall since they were there, but he decided against such a thing. She deserved better than that for their first time to be against the wall, especially in a living room that had a stench clinging to it. He hoped that the bedroom smelled better or things were actually going to have to wait because he was going to have to take her to his home. He really could not take much more of that putrid scent.

To get his mind back on track, Sesshomaru gently nipped at Kikyo's lips as an attempt to get her to open her mouth, which she did. His tongue rushed out of his mouth to enter hers and sought out her tongue. He bit back a groan as she moaned from their tongues dancing together.

Sesshomaru's hands decided to get into the act, believing that they needed to be doing something. He lightly caressed her torso through her shirt, which was a light material because it was warm outside. He only wanted to get an idea of what she was like; he would leave the heavy fondling to when they were about to get down to business.

One of his hands wandered lower and began feeling Kikyo's slim thigh, which held the hand's attention for a few moments. Then his hand made its way to her rear and he did not hesitate in kneading that area. She moaned again; the sounds were really starting to get to him. The fact that he was giving her pleasure and she was making it known was heaven for him.

The platinum-haired male lifted Kikyo into his arms without breaking their kiss. She automatically wrapped her arms around his neck and he went in search for the bedroom. It was not hard to find since the apartment only had three rooms in the back; the bathroom, an office, and the bedroom. When he entered the bedroom, he was thankful to be assaulted by her scent and nothing more. He silently thanked whatever divine being there might be for that small favor.

He placed Kikyo down softly at the head of the bed. He pulled away from her just to have a moment to take in the sight and give her a moment to reflect on what was going on. He did not mind giving her a chance to back out; mostly because he was so certain that she would not do suck a thing.

"You are heavenly," he informed her and she looked away. It seemed that she was not used to being complimented. Not that he expected her husband to know that he should tell her what a splendid creature she was as often as possible.

"You don't mean that," she said.

"Indeed I do," he promised. He meant everything he said.

Sesshomaru leaned back down and captured her mouth in another amazingly passionate kiss. His hands took hold of her shirt and lifted the momentarily useless cloth away. Once the shirt was gone, his hands went back to her torso and began to caress her again. He touched her as if she was fragile, but enough to make her cry out into his mouth.

She began to grab for him, but he would not let her hold on. He used one hand to hold both of hers above her head. He then broke the kiss to look down at her as his free hand went to rid her of another useless piece of clothing, her bra. She was wearing a plain white bra; there was nothing catching about it, which he expected of her. He pulled the cloth away as if it offended him and in a way it did because it hid parts of her from his desiring gaze. He exhaled slowly when he caught sight of her perfect form.

"You..." He kissed her pale neck. "Are..." He kissed her collar bone. "Perfect." He kissed the top milky breast.

Kikyo squirmed underneath him; she was not used to such a treatment and she also did not like having her hands restrained. He did not release her, nor did he halt his actions. He started to explore the creamy sea of flesh that was bare to him. He made a path of wet kisses all over the smooth, beautiful ocean, making sure to take his time to properly adore every part of her.

Of course, in his journey, the dog demon halted to take time with the twin islands on the sea of milky skin. His free hand attended to one while his mouth handled the other with care. He tasted one while tenderly kneading the other one.

Kikyo arched into his touch while crying out again; he pretended to not notice. It seemed that she needed the attention that he provided. She had never experienced such care and affection. It felt like paradise; he made her feel as if she was in Eden.

She tasted divine to him and he would have stayed where he was all night if he was not so certain better things lay ahead, further down the wonderful sea. He did make sure to remain at the delightful pair of islands, switching his attentions, until Kikyo was practically writhing underneath him, wanting more. He still had more torturous things to do, but he did not let her know that.

Sesshomaru released Kikyo for a moment and left her panting on the bed while he freed himself from his jacket, shirt, and tie; he was very much overdressed for their current activity. By the time that she was recovering, he was unbuttoning her pants. He liberated her from the rest of her clothing quite rapidly; she hardly noticed.

The dog demon once again had to take a moment to look at Kikyo. There were no words that he could speak that would even begin to express what he believed that he was looking at. So, he decided on one word: perfect. She was perfect and she was his.

Clawed fingers began caressing slender, velvety thighs while an eager mouth licked around a perfect bellybutton. Sesshomaru was ready to go off the deep end because he could smell her so clearly now. He had never caught the scent of something so marvelous and he was not going to let that smell tantalize him anymore than it had already.

"Sesshomaru, what are you doing?" Kikyo inquired when he began moving below her navel.

"Answering a call," he answered.

As he got to where he desired to be, he began his examination of the hidden treasure. His tongue darted out for a closer look and he was nearly decapitated because Kikyo tried to close her legs on reflex. He caught her limbs before she caused him severe head trauma and then went back to his task. Kikyo took a hissing inhale that did not seem to have an end; she had never felt anything so unbelievably good. She grabbed the bed and held on tight as he continued on.

"Sesshomaru…" Kikyo whimpered as tears gathered in her chocolate eyes from the ecstasy. She had no idea that pleasure could exist on the level that she was feeling it at the moment. Was that how intimacy was supposed to be?

He glanced up because the salty aroma of her tears caught his attention. She was biting her lip now and he went back to delighting her. He reveled in her taste; she was so delicious, like nectar of the gods. He had to remind himself that there were other things to do or he would have stayed there for hours and she would have turned to a liquid from the way she felt. What she was doing to him was not something that he was used to, namely intoxicating him with her mere existence. But, he was willing to let it go for the moment; it just was not important.

The important thing was getting to the main event. Sesshomaru shed his pants as if they were poisonous. He joined Kikyo on the bed and attacked her mouth with his own, starting another passion driven kiss. When he connected their bodies, Kikyo surprisingly hissed in pain, which caught his attention.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes. It's been a while," she somewhat explained.

Sesshomaru waited until Kikyo was all right and then he touched her soul. Once again, tears fell from her eyes, but they were not out of sorrow or agony; they were tears of euphoria. It was so beautiful and then something decidedly far from perfect happened, in Sesshomaru's opinion anyway. She felt so heavenly that he touched paradise before she did; it was the first time that such a thing happened to him and he blamed her for it. The blame was not negative or anything; he just had not expected being with her to be so gratifying.

The dog demon did not say anything; he did not apologize for what happened. He never apologized. He did, however, spend the rest of the night making it up to her. He discovered something that night and it was that Kikyo mattered as much to him as he mattered to himself because he was determined that make sure that she had everything that she needed that night. Kikyo was left in sheer disbelief; she never knew that a person could make her feel so good both emotionally and physically, especially from simple coitus. No, scratch that because there was nothing simple about what was going on.

Kikyo had no idea that intercourse was supposed to be so mind-blowing. She did not know that it was supposed to be soul touching; it seriously felt like he had touched her soul. She could not believe that he made her cry during the time and made it seem like she truly touched paradise.

When it was clear that Kikyo was exhausted, Sesshomaru decided to call it a night; although it was well into the morning now. He held her close as they settled under the covers. He did not even think about what smells might be on the sheets since the whole room now smelled of their intense coupling.

Kikyo curled up to Sesshomaru and fell asleep almost instantly. He stared at her for a while. He could not believe that he had just slept with a human and got more pleasure from it than any other rut that he could think of. She was special and she was his. She was definitely his angel and he was going to keep her close, husband be damned.

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Next time: the morning after.


	7. And then the sun rose

I don't own these characters.

7: And then the sun rose…

Sesshomaru groaned as the light of the morning sun hit his face and took him from his sleep. He turned his head while wondering why he was being bothered by the sun; his bed was situated to avoid such annoyances. His golden eyes then caught sight of why he was being harassed by the sun; he was not in his bed. He was in Kikyo's bed and she was resting against him, which was the sight that explained everything to him.

He had fallen asleep in her bed after making love to her through out the night. He smiled to himself as he recollected everything that they had done last night. He could not recall a time when intercourse was so fulfilling. Usually, he would have had his way with the female and then gone home, but that thought had not even entered his mind while he was with Kikyo.

Kikyo was not just a bit of fun like other females had been for him. No, there was something about her that put her way above them. She was special and she already had a place in his hidden heart, even though they had not known each other very long. He was already making plans for her to be his eternal mate, even though she was married and they had only just spent the night together.

He figured that once she woke up, he could take her out for breakfast. He believed that she would enjoy such a thing, like she seemed to enjoy their lunches. She would not be the only one that would like having a meal together and until then, he decided to just enjoy being near her.

Sesshomaru gazed at Kikyo while she slept. There was a lovely hint of peace on her angelic face. Her head was on his chest, using him as pillow, which he did not mind in the slightest. He would not mind if she always used him as pillow. She also had her hand on his chest and he could not help comparing their skin color to each other.

They were two different types of pale, he noted. He was a ghostly color, like a phantom while she was more a creamy pale, almost like milk. Still, they were still a nearly white pair, which amused him ever so slightly; it would amuse her later on when she noted it too.

He put his arm, which she was resting on, around her shoulders. He lightly caressed her bicep, trying to avoid waking her, but wanting to feel her silky skin under his fingertips. She was just so lovely, he thought, and he just lay there, stoking her arm until she began to stir.

Kikyo was only half-awake when she began moving against the dog demon. She wondered why was she so comfortable. Why was her pillow so much better than usual? Why was she so much warmer than usual? She opened her eyes to find out.

For an incoherent moment, Kikyo did not know who she was resting against and she became a bit frightened. Sesshomaru could tell because of her scent and he could hear her heartbeat change. He tightened his grip on her a bit just to assure her that everything was all right and she looked up at him.

"Morning," he greeted her in his usual tone.

"Sesshomaru," Kikyo said as if she expected someone else to be there.

"Yes," he replied. He considered that she might have expected him to have left her sometime through the night. After all, she was a married woman, so she more than likely would not think that a man who was not her husband would spend the night with her. He would spend every night with her if he could.

"What time is it?" she asked as she glanced over only to discover that she was not facing the clock as she usually would. He glanced over to the other side of the bed to answer her question.

"A little after nine," he replied.

"So late," she commented while holding in a yawn.

"Late?" he echoed. For him, it would have been late if it was a work day, but on a weekend when he had no obligations, there was no such thing as late.

"I tend to wake up early to leave early," she answered.

"Why? Where do you go?" he asked. She did not have work, after all. What did she do with her time?

"There is plenty to do in this great city of ours. I find new things. I would rather be out of here before he wakes up," she explained.

"He? Your mean your husband," he clarified. He did not care if she brought the man up because that lowly worm did not compare to him.

"Yes," she answered.

"When is he returning?" he asked curiously.

"Tomorrow afternoon," she replied. She would rather not think about it and just enjoy her time without him.

"What did he go on this trip for?" the dog demon inquired.

"I think he is attempting to get his partner fired," Kikyo answered. She had not been paying much attention when Naraku started his rant, or the rants that followed since he had gotten the idea so early in the week. She also did not know that Sesshomaru was the man he was looking to get fired, obviously.

"Is he?"

"I believe that is what he is looking to do. He wants to speak with the clients directly and change their minds on having him work with a partner. He doesn't seem to getting along with his partner," she explained.

Sesshomaru nodded slightly. He was not too worried about the news that he just learned. His only concern was the petite body against him. He was going to use the free time with her while he had it and did not have to care a thing about a certain half-breed.

"Sounds like a charming fellow," the nobleman remarked sarcastically.

"Quite," she concurred.

Sesshomaru let the conversation drop because it was obvious that she did not want to talk about it. He could care less about her husband too. He had other things in mind now that she was awake. He moved his free hand, the one that was not around her shoulders, to under the sheet. He began caressing the inside of her slim thigh.

"Sessho…" she moaned quietly because of the attention that he was giving her.

Sesshomaru pulled Kikyo up a little so that he could kiss her. She seemed a bit surprised by what was happening, but she did not protest. They were not going to have much time to themselves like they did now, so they did need to take advantage and they both knew that. They both agreed with that logic; although Sesshomaru was making plans for them beyond the one weekend.

--------------

Kikyo was now resting on top of Sesshomaru with her head tucked underneath his chin. He was massaging her bare back and quietly enjoying the feel of her naked body against his, especially her legs caressing his own as they were. They were both covered in a thin layer of sweat and Sesshomaru guessed that his idea to take her out for breakfast was going to end up being their usual lunch date.

They were distracted from each other by the sound of a phone going off; it was on vibration mode. It was Kikyo's cell. She sat up a bit to look around for it, but Sesshomaru located it before her. He reached over to the dresser by the bed that held the clock, a lamp, and her phone. He handed it to her.

"Thank you," Kikyo said to him. He did not respond and went back to rubbing her back. She answered the phone, knowing who it was that was calling her. "Hello, big sister," she greeted Midoriko.

"Oh, thank goodness," Midoriko sighed in relief.

"What's wrong?" Kikyo asked.

"You never came by last night and you have not answered my calls. I was so worried about you," the eldest sister replied. She had been plotting all sorts of torturous things if that hanyou scum had harmed her younger sister in any way.

"Oh…" Kikyo realized that she had forgotten her sisters while she was out with Sesshomaru. Was that a bad thing? After all, she had forgotten her sisters to break her marriage vows, over and over and over again.

"Oh? Is that it? What happened?" Midoriko inquired.

Kikyo was silent. She could not lie to her sister, but she could not tell her sister that she had spent the night with Sesshomaru. She was in a bit of a spot.

"I merely forgot to come to your apartment last night," the middle sister answered.

"In favor of?" Midoriko asked.

"Tea with a friend," she replied.

Midoriko was silent now. She could tell that she was not getting the whole story and she was not sure if she was going to get the whole thing. She was going to press the issue with the hope of getting more than what Kikyo was offering, but the middle sister beat her to speaking.

"Big sister, I will call you back later," Kikyo said and she disconnected the call before Midoriko could answer. She breathed a sigh of relief and dropped her head back onto Sesshomaru's chest.

"Are you all right?" the dog demon inquired.

"I am. I just did not want to lie to my sister," she explained.

"All right. So, would you like to go out for some lunch?" he offered.

"I would prefer to take a shower before that," she commented.

"Well, that too. Now that you mention it, would you mind if we stopped by my apartment and then we went to lunch?" he proposed.

"All right," she agreed.

Sesshomaru was reluctant to let Kikyo get out of bed, but he let her go. He watched as she wrapped a sheet around her nude body, which he thought was a bit amusing. She was a modest little thing, which he expected. He would like to break her of her modesty when she was around him, though. He supposed that would take time.

While Kikyo went to take a shower, Sesshomaru went to grab his cell phone. He checked to see if he had any messages. He guessed that his sister might have been looking for him like her sister had been looking for her. He was right to check because Rin was practically cheering on his voicemail. Rin had a habit of always sounding like she was cheering about something.

Rin merely wanted to know where he was according to the first message, but she was not done with just the one. She had another where she was requesting that he allow her to stay over his apartment for the weekend. She liked staying at his apartment because it was close to a skate park that she and her friends liked going to get wounded as far as he could tell. He knew that whenever she returned from the place, she was always sporting at least three cuts. He decided to call her back and let her know that it probably would not be a good time for her to come over that weekend.

"Hello, big brother!" Rin greeted him.

"Hello, Rin," he replied.

"I was just about to call you again. So, can I come over to your house? Can I? Can I? Can I?" she asked. He guessed that she had had a lot of sugar already.

"This weekend isn't a very good time," Sesshomaru answered.

"Why?" Rin pretty much howled into the phone.

"I have work to do," he informed her. He was not lying, technically. He had work to do with Kikyo, making her understand that she had made the right decision in breaking her wedding vows and being with him. He had work to do in making her feel like the angel he believed she was.

"Aw," the twelve-year-old groaned. "When can I come over then?" she inquired.

"I don't know," he replied.

"Well, when are you gonna be done with your work?" she asked.

"I'm not sure," he answered.

"What about if I help? I could help! Oh, lemme help," she offered and he knew that she was grinning even though they were speaking over the phone. She was grinning from ear to ear.

"At the moment, I don't need help, but you will be the first person I call if I do need it," he assured her.

"Okay!" she cheered. "Oh, big brother, I gotta go! My friends are here," she explained.

Sesshomaru just let her go. He laughed a bit to himself; Rin certainly was lively. He did not understand how her friends kept up with her, unless her friends were like her, which he doubted. He believed that Rin was one of a kind; she had to be the only human on the planet that thought she was a demon, after all.

The dog demon decided to gather up his clothing and get dressed. He was starting to consider that maybe he did not want to go out for lunch. He could have Kikyo in his apartment and they could order out. He was not sure; he would see what he felt like doing once they got to his apartment.

While he was searching for his tie, he came across a book hidden under the bed. He would have left it alone, but he could see that it was a sketchbook. He guessed that it was Kikyo's book because she was into art and he knew that her husband was not intelligent enough to appreciate art. He flipped the book open and noticed the soft pencil sketches. He saw the signature at the bottom corner and that confirmed it was her book.

He moved on to the next page and found a picture that he suspected she did while she was on the subway because it was a sketch of people sitting on the train. She had a surprisingly sharp style with dark edges over light curves. She was into detail from what he could tell, which was something that he looked into when he sketched. He continued on looking through the pieces.

"What's that you have there?" Kikyo inquired as she reentered the room, now fully dressed; yes, she had taken her clothes with her into the bathroom rather than getting dressed in front of Sesshomaru.

"Your sketchbook," he answered as if it was no big deal and he did not think it was.

"No, don't look," Kikyo groaned. She never showed her sketches to people. She was not very proud of her sketch work.

"Why? I like what you have here. It looks like you smug your work sometimes, but other than that it is fine work," he commented.

"I forget to pick my hand up on occasion," she explained about the smears that he was seeing. She accidentally moved her hand over lines; it was more noticeable when she worked in ink because with pencil, she could erase such mistakes.

"What kind of classes did you attend?" he inquired while continuing to go through the book.

"I didn't," she answered. Art for her had always been a hobby and she just did it on her own when she had the time.

His only response was, "hmm."

Kikyo sat down next to him and tried to take the book from him, but he would not give it up. She would not give up either and he held her at bay with one hand while still looking through the book. He noticed something as he came to her hand sketches.

"You're left-handed?" he asked curiously. At lot of her hand sketches were of her right hand. She could actually work with both hands, but practiced more with her left because she felt that that hand was the weakest of the pair.

"Can I please just have my book back?" she requested while reaching out for the sketchbook.

"No," he answered rather bluntly.

"Please."

"I just said no."

"There's nothing in there for you to see," she said.

"There's plenty for me to see. Do you have other sketchbooks or is this the only one?" he inquired.

"That's it," she answered.

"Really? I have stacks," he informed her.

"And do you just like anyone looking through your sketchbooks?" she asked.

Sesshomaru glanced at her. "On occasion I do allow certain people to see them. It depends," he stated.

"On?"

"It just depends. Since you're ready, we can depart," he said.

"Can I have my book back?" she requested once again.

"No."

Sesshomaru kept the sketchbook in his possession and then stood up. Kikyo looked at him in disbelief, but she could tell that she was not going to get that book back until he was done with it. Well, at least he did not make fun of her work; a certain half-breed would have thrown the book out if he had come across it, but she would rather not think about him. Sesshomaru was nothing like him.

The pair left the house and Kikyo could only hope that she did not have nosy neighbors. She really did not know the people in the building that well; they did not seem particularly friendly. She supposed that she was safe, relatively speaking, as long as Naraku was like she was and he did not speak to anyone in the building either because she was certain that someone was going to see her with Sesshomaru. She was willing to bet that someone saw him go in her apartment last night too.

They went the short distance to Sesshomaru's building. He lived ten minutes away from her; she could walk to his apartment if the urge ever came over her. The urge had better overcome her, he thought. Well, actually, he would prefer the urge for her to call him and inform him that she wanted to come over took her over because he would not want her walking anyway. He would drive to her and take her anywhere she wanted to, especially if it was to his place.

Sesshomaru parked in his designed spot and then took Kikyo up to his apartment. His apartment was huge; it might as well have been a house, she thought. He left her to look around. He went to his bedroom and made sure to take the sketchbook with him. She noticed that her book went with him, but she did not say anything.

Kikyo was not sure if she should wander around the apartment. She was not very comfortable with the idea; well, she was not very comfortable with being in the place at all. It seemed so…sneaky. It felt like she was doing something wrong, but she would rather be wrong with Sesshomaru if she was being wrong.

She decided to tour the area as best she could from where she was standing. She glanced to her left she saw his kitchen, which was about two and half times the size of her kitchen. His countertops were black marble design as was the floor and the cupboard doors. The cupboards themselves were white. The refrigerator was onyx as was his stove. He had a pair of stools, which were black and sitting at the counter around the kitchen that closed it off from the rest of the apartment.

She then looked into the living room, which was sunken. He had a flat screen television on the wall with a black stand that held a DVD player and a cable box. There were some DVDs on the stand, which she would not expect in his possession; they were cartoons and they belonged to Rin, but she did not know that. He had a semi-circular couch, which was also black.

She was a bit surprised by all of the black that was in Sesshomaru's home. She had been under the impression that he was partial to white considering all of his suits were white. Perhaps, he only enjoyed the color when it came to his outfits.

She did not see much more of his apartment. She could see that there was another big room after the living room, but it was position to the left, so she could not look into it. She remained where she was rather than going to look in the other room. She glanced toward the hallway to see if Sesshomaru was coming back, but she did not see a sign of him. Soon, she heard the sound of running water, so she guessed that he was taking a shower.

She decided to take a few steps further into the apartment and noticed that he had a couple of pictures about the place. They were of one little girl that looked rather familiar to her. She knew the kid in the two pictures that she had; one where she was missing her two front teeth, which she supposed was always a favorite. She had dozens of pictures of Kaede when she was toothless and Midoriko had dozens of her when she was toothless. Then the other picture was the girl graduating, probably from elementary and that picture held the reason why Kikyo knew the little girl; Rin was in the picture with Kaede.

"It is a small world," Kikyo muttered.

"Admiring my little sister?" Sesshomaru inquired as he joined her in his living room.

"Does she mind that you have this picture of her out?" Kikyo countered while pointing to the toothless picture.

"She's stolen it on more than one occasion," he answered.

"I wonder if she thought of that or if Kaede talked her into doing it," she commented, mostly to herself. Kaede tended to steal pictures of herself that she did not like too. "Where is my book?" she inquired as the thought just entered her mind.

Sesshomaru only gave her a half-smirk as an answer. She did not seem to like that much and turned her attention directly to him; she wanted her sketchbook back. He looked over her; he would give her back the book when he was done with it and not a moment before.

Kikyo seemed to get the idea and decided to stop thinking about her book for the moment. She then noticed his clothes and he certainly did not look like he was ready to go out to lunch. He was wearing a plain white tee-shirt and white pants that she knew he would never go outside in.

"I thought that we were going out to lunch," the petite woman commented.

"About that, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying in with me. We could order in and relax together," Sesshomaru offered.

Kikyo thought on the proposal while Sesshomaru could not believe he had just given an option. He usually did what he wanted to do and he wanted to stay in to just enjoy having Kikyo to himself, but he was going to let her decide what they would do. It might have been the first time that he had ever done something like that.

The slender woman considered that it might be nice to just stay in with Sesshomaru. How many times would she get such an opportunity? Maybe for a day she could pretend that all was right in her world. She could see what it was like to relax with a male that would not find it necessary to start an argument with her.

"I think I would like that," Kikyo said.

"All right," he replied.

Sesshomaru was pleased that she had agreed with the plan. He went to make the call for lunch and asked her what she wanted. While he placed the order, he told her to make herself comfortable since she was still standing around. She shyly made her to the sofa and sat down. He watched her and shook his head; he was going to have to make her feel at home in his apartment.

Once he was done with ordering their lunch, he walked over to Kikyo. He sat down on the sofa and took her into his arms. She yelped in surprise, not expecting him to grab her. She also was not used to such actions point blank.

"Don't be so stiff," the dog demon said in a low tone and then he nuzzled her neck, hoping to relax her.

"Perhaps, if you gave me back my book," she replied while willing herself to be calm. She liked being in his arms, after all, so there was no reason for her to be so guarded.

"I am not giving you back that book until I see all of your sketches," he informed her.

"Well, are you going to show me your sketches in return?" she inquired.

"Maybe," he replied and then he offered up something for them to do before she could huff about his answer, which she was going to do. "Would you like to listen to some music? Or perhaps watch something on television?" he proposed.

"Watch what?" she asked.

"I'm not very sure. Most of the things for the television are for my little sister," he told her.

"Does she spend a lot of time here?"

"Yes. It serves as a good base of operation for her to link up with her insane friends as they go find new ways to injure themselves," he answered.

Kikyo laughed a bit and nodded; she understood what he meant exactly now that he knew who his sister was. If her memory served her correctly, Rin was a wild, little sparkplug. Typically when Kaede came in with some kind of wound, it was because Rin had a so-called brilliant idea. If Kaede came in without an injury, it usually meant that she had the brilliant idea and Rin was probably the one that had the scars to prove it.

Sesshomaru released Kikyo for the moment to see if he had anything worth watching. He usually did not watch much television, preferring to paint if he had any spare time; well, preferring to try to paint. Although lately, his muse had returned and he had done some quality work. He located a few DVDs that he had purchased a while ago; Rin had stuck them in the back of everything else since she did not watch them.

The dog demon put on a movie and then went back to clutching Kikyo in his strong arms. They remained like that until he had to answer the door for their lunch. They ate lunch and stayed on the couch, cuddled up. Occasionally, he would sneak a kiss to her cheek, neck, or lips. They both silently decided that it was something that they could get used to. It seemed like the way that things should be.

--------------

Next time: Naraku returns and things try to go back to normal. They really try, but normal doesn't seem to work anymore.


	8. Ceasefire

I don't own these characters.

8: Ceasefire

Sesshomaru groaned as he was taken from his sleep because of some light movement against him. His mind wondered what his woman thought she was doing because he knew that she was the reason he was waking up. He could tell that she was not trying to adjust to get more comfortable; it seemed that she was getting up, so he opened his eyes to check on her.

"Kikyo, what are you doing?" the dog demon inquired.

"I'm sorry, Sessho. I didn't mean to wake you," Kikyo apologized.

"That doesn't explain what you're doing," he pointed out.

"I was just going to get up and go home," she answered.

"And how were you going to go about that?"

"I was going to walk."

"You're not walking home. I'll drive you. Why are you getting up so early, though?" he inquired. He recalled that she said her husband was not going to be in until the afternoon and it was the early morning at the moment. She did not need to leave just yet.

"I was going to clean the apartment," she replied.

Kikyo planned to get home early to erase or at least dull the evidence that Sesshomaru had been in the apartment. She was not sure how Naraku would react to the knowledge of a demon male being in the apartment and she would rather not find out.

She would have taken care of those things before, but she ended up spending the night at Sesshomaru's house. It had been quite a night; she doubted that she would ever forget it. She would not mind having more such nights; he was in agreement with that thinking.

"All right. I'll drive you home," Sesshomaru said.

Kikyo nodded and the pair got out bed, rather reluctantly. They dressed and Sesshomaru returned Kikyo to her apartment. He understood what she was going to do, so he did not stick around. He kissed her sweetly as a farewell and instructed her to call him when she had a moment to spare. She agreed to that and was then alone again.

The petite woman sighed and looked around the apartment. She really did not want to be there. She wanted to go back to Sesshomaru's apartment and lay next to him for the rest of the day. She had never felt so comfortable with a man before. Even when Naraku was lying to her and acting like someone he was not, she was not nearly as comfortable with him as she was with Sesshomaru. Being with the dog demon felt so right and she wanted to be with him as much as she could.

Kikyo decided to stop thinking about it and she got to work on cleaning the house. The first thing that she was going to have to do was wash the bed spread. Naraku did not often share the bed with her; she suspected that he feared she might purify him in his sleep. It was not a completely outrageous assumption on his part considering how upset she sometimes got with him.

She pretty much cleaned everything and made sure that she used cleaning fluid with a powerful bleach smell. Naraku, like anyone with demon blood, had a stronger sense of smell than humans, but only certain kind of demons had extremely powerful senses of smell. So, she would be able to mask the scent of Sesshomaru to Naraku and everything should be fine…well, everything should be as it usually was anyway. It was never fine when the hanyou was involved.

By the time Naraku came in, Kikyo had the apartment in a presentable order. She was going to go to the bedroom and do some sketching, but she realized that Sesshomaru still had her book. She had nothing to distract her from her half-demon husband now.

"Kikyo," Naraku greeted her as he entered their home. He looked around as if he suspected something, she noted, but she figured that it was really nothing.

"Yes?" Kikyo replied from the sofa.

"Don't you want to know how my trip went?" he inquired.

"Not really," she answered honestly.

Naraku frowned; she guessed that his trip did not go as planned. He did not appear pleased when he entered the apartment, so she did not need him to tell her how things went. But, she figured that since she was home, he was going to tell her because he liked having an audience, even if the audience was not listening.

"Do you know what these fools had the nerve to say? They did not think that my arguments were sound and they wanted to keep that dog bastard on the team. They want him to design a logo and they want us to come up with a decent ad. They would not listen to reason and they didn't care that mutt wasn't doing anything. They ordered that we come up with something to show them within the week or they were going to take their account somewhere else," Naraku explained.

"Well, then, I suppose you two should get to work," she commented.

Naraku did not see any humor in that remark and growled. He moved over to Kikyo and loomed over her. It seemed that he was trying to intimidate her. He grabbed her shoulder and pushed her down into the sofa to make sure that she could not get up. They eyed each other; she was daring him to do something with her cocoa gaze. He really wanted to take her up on that challenge.

"You should be a more supportive wife," he informed her.

"You should be a more supportive husband," she countered.

"I am supportive. Aren't the one bringing in the money?" he inquired with a cruel smirk.

Kikyo was tempted to slap him because of his words and his expression. She wanted so badly to go find work, but he had threatened to get her fired and she knew that he was not making an idle threat. She could not chance him doing something that might keep her from gaining employment ever again. She was not sure what he might do, but she knew that it would be sinister. So, she was going to wait, bide her time until she was certain that his threat would be meaningless to her. She was patient if nothing else.

"Unhand me," Kikyo commanded her husband.

"Why? You should be more open to my touch," Naraku replied and he moved a hand to touch her cheek. She moved her head and he missed.

"Don't touch me," she ordered him a calm, but deadly tone. After she had spent the weekend in Sesshomaru's arms, she was certain that she would vomit if she felt Naraku touch her skin. Although she had not been much of a fan of her husband touching her ever since she found out what he was really like.

"A husband should be allowed to touch his wife," the hanyou commented.

"Do it and you shall pull back a blackened stump," she seemed to promise him.

Naraku laughed in that low, wicked tone that he probably had a patent on. Kikyo did not look amused and her face changed to almost outright disgust as her husband leaned in. It seemed that he was going to kiss her. She panicked on the inside and pushed him away from her. He was caught by surprise and fell back a couple of feet.

"I said don't touch me," Kikyo stated in a firm tone.

"You are just full of energy," Naraku commented as if he was amused by what just happened.

"I'm going out," Kikyo declared. She wanted to get away from him. She did not know where she wanted to go, but she wanted to get away from him.

"Really? You don't want to spend some time with your darling husband after I've come home from a long trip?" he asked in a mocking tone.

"I'm going out," she repeated and she stood up. She took a step toward the door, but he grabbed her by the arm. He pulled her to him.

"We should spend time together, dear wife," he said.

"Let go of me," she practically growled at him.

Naraku thought on the request for a moment and then flung her away from him. Kikyo nearly hit the front wall, but she caught her balance first. She glared at him and decided that he was not even worth her time. She had better things to do and friendlier people to be around.

The pale woman exited the apartment and went out into the street. She started walking and pulled out her cell phone. She wondered who she should call. It was a toss up between her big sister and Sesshomaru. Neither would be pleasant conversations because she was going to have to explain why she called more than likely. She called Sesshomaru.

"Yes, Kikyo?" he answered the call.

"Um…Sessho…do you suppose that I could come back to your apartment for a little while?" she requested in a somewhat shy tone. She felt like she was intruding in his life, even though she had just been at his apartment that morning.

"All right," he easily agreed. He had been silently wishing that she was with him ever since he dropped her off. "Where are you now? I'll come and pick you up," he informed her.

"I'm walking toward your building right now," she answered. She was glad that he did not seem to want to know her reasoning for wanting to come back.

"Oh," he groaned.

"Should I not be doing that?" she asked because of the noise.

"I'm not home at the moment. I decided to run a few errands after I dropped you off. How close are you to my home right now?"

"Well, I just left my apartment."

"All right. I can be at you in about two minutes. Just wait for me," he told her.

"All right."

Kikyo waited for him and the dog demon was true to his word; he was at her in under two minutes. He did want to know why she was returning to him so soon, not that he was complaining. It just struck him as odd that she would leave home not even an hour after her husband was supposed to be home. He wanted to know why she would do such a thing, even though he could guess; who would want to be around that hanyou for long? He just wanted to be sure that her husband had not done more than annoyed her.

"I just needed to get out," Kikyo said.

"Kikyo, if he hurt you, I want you to tell me," Sesshomaru stated. If that bastard hanyou did anything that even misplaced a hair on his angel's head, he would behead that crimson-eyed pest with his own claws.

Sesshomaru considered that he might have been better off not knowing who Kikyo was married to. Now, he would just be looking for any excuse to knock that silly bastard around. He was angry that a complete and utter ass like that moron hanyou had managed to trick Kikyo into marrying him.

"He didn't hurt me. He was just being irksome, as he usually is," Kikyo assured the nobleman.

Sesshomaru nodded and decided to believe her words. He had to believe her because she was his angel. Now, just because he believed her did not mean that he trusted her bastard husband. After all, he knew who she was married to and he was willing to bet that the hanyou was slimier than he could imagine.

The couple went back to Sesshomaru's apartment and relaxed there. He had dinner delivered to them while they cuddled on the sofa and watched a movie. He returned Kikyo to her apartment close to midnight and she did not explain her whereabouts to her husband when he asked.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru went to work that Monday and there was no outward change in his appearance to let anyone know just how good he actually felt. He had never felt so…he was not even sure how to describe it. He felt lighter than air, as if there was a cloud inside of him. He just felt great, even though he always thought that he felt great since he was just that. His current feeling was just different than usual and he hoped that the feeling remained.

He knew that his weekend with Kikyo was the reason that he felt the way he did. He did not try to rationalize that; the thought had not even crossed his mind. He just knew that he was looking forward to seeing her again, to being with her again. If only he could keep her with him at all times, take her home every day, sleep with her whenever the urge overcame him, hold her in his arms whenever he wanted, and so many other things.

He was already considering telling her to leave her husband. He did think that it was rather soon to tell her such a thing. They had not known each other for too long and he suspected that she would not go for such a thing so soon. She was a cautious little creature. He would hold off for a while to let her see that it was safe to be with him and that she needed to get away from Naraku.

"We have work to do," the hanyou stated as he barged into the officer. Speak of the devil, Sesshomaru thought.

"Indeed we do," the dog demon concurred. He guessed that the foolish half-demon did not have a great deal of success getting him taken off of the account.

"Then I suggest a truce," Naraku said.

Sesshomaru did not even change his facial expression to the words. He desired to just go cut off Naraku's head at that very moment. How dare the detestable half-breed trick Kikyo into marrying him? He had better never touch Kikyo, Sesshomaru thought; his inner demon was raging and demanding Naraku's blood to calm it down.

"I suggest you do your part and I do mine," the dog demon stated. He wanted the half-demon out of his office before his inner demon took control. Sesshomaru was pretty much the embodiment of self-control, but he was willing to lose that for Kikyo.

Naraku conceded that if only to get away from Sesshomaru. If they both did their parts and did it to the best of their ability, surely they could get the account out of the way and they would not have to bother with each other anymore. Sesshomaru just wanted the damn half-breed out of his office and he got his wish.

"He's not keeping her," Sesshomaru silently vowed.

The dog demon could not possibly live with himself if he did not take his woman where she needed to be, namely with him. She did not deserve to be around some insane, manipulative half-demon that she did not even want to touch her. It was not like Naraku deserved to touch her anyway. He had to get Kikyo away from that fool.

--------------

Kikyo reminded herself to act normal as she went to meet up with Midoriko. They were having lunch together; Kaede would not be joining them because she was back at school. Kikyo took calming breaths as she made her way to the café and she tried her best not to think of what she had done with Sesshomaru on Saturday. Sure, she had spent Sunday with him too, but Saturday was just not right for lack of a better phrase.

Saturday was not wild by the dog demon's standards, but for Kikyo, it was just about the wildest day she had ever had. She was not used to passion in general and yet, that night with Sesshomaru had been ridiculous as far as she was concerned. She had to make sure not to think about it or she might zone out on her sister or something worse. She had to make sure not to make her big sister suspicious because even though Midoriko hated Naraku, there was no way that she would approve of Kikyo having an affair with Sesshomaru.

"Kikyo," Midoriko called and the middle sister waved.

"Hello, sister," Kikyo greeted her elder sibling as she took a seat with her at the table.

"It's good to see that you didn't forget about our lunch date considering your state this weekend," Midoriko remarked.

"I am truly sorry for that," the younger woman apologized and she bowed her head slightly.

"It's all right. I had just been so worried about you. It's not like you to say you'll see us and then you don't show up," Midoriko replied.

Kikyo only nod once because she should have guessed that would happen. She had just been busy with Sesshomaru. She felt a bit guilty for forsaking her sisters to lie underneath Sesshomaru Friday night and practically all of Saturday. She suspected that her elder sister would be extremely upset with her if she ever found out, not just about the lustful behavior, but the affair altogether.

"How goes the job search?" Midoriko inquired.

Kikyo exhaled slowly. She did not want to tell her big sister what Naraku threatened to do if she ever did find a job considering the elder female would probably pump him so full of spiritual energy that she would burn herself out. If only it was not considered murder nowadays, she would do it herself.

"I haven't really been looking," the middle sister admitted.

"You've been getting distracted by all of the art museums, I'll bet. I know a gentleman who is a doctor and he has a small practice. I'm sure he would like the help," Midoriko informed Kikyo.

"No, you don't need to find me work. I am an adult now. I shouldn't depend on you for every little thing," Kikyo objected.

"Nonsense. I am you older sister. I should look out for you if I can," Midoriko argued.

"No, it's fine. I can do it on my own," Kikyo insisted.

Midoriko decided to drop the debate for a moment. She studied her younger sister for a second and noticed something about the younger female. Kikyo seemed to be glowing; it was the first time that she had ever witnessed such a thing. It was beyond the typical happiness that Kikyo used to express before she had gotten married to that scum-sucking hanyou.

Now, Kikyo had never been one those people that was outwardly happy. Every now and then, she could be caught smiling or laughing like a normal person, but a great deal of the time, she looked like she was containing herself. At the moment, it looked like she was trying to maintain control of that ability she had to contain herself.

"Is something wrong, big sister?" Kikyo inquired because of the way that Midoriko was eyeing her.

"No, there's nothing wrong. There's just something different about you," Midoriko answered.

"Something different about me?"

"Yes."

Kikyo wondered if she had slipped up. She had not even thought about Sesshomaru, though. How could she have allowed anything to slip when she had been paying her sister her total attention? It did not make any sense.

"It's good to see you happy," Midoriko commented and Kikyo was taken aback by that.

Kikyo did not have a way to respond, but she did not need one. Her sister changed the subject and did not bring up Kikyo's obvious mood or ask the reason behind it. That was a relief.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru sat on his sofa, massaging his temples. He really needed an idea of some kind for the account to get Naraku out of his life. He had not been able to come up with a single good logo from their clients or visual advertisement of any kind. He had been working through lunch since Kikyo had been hanging out with her elder sister, so his day was just full of Naraku until he could make it home.

Naraku was not assisting matters by not coming up with anything to help. The half-breed actually wanted things to be over just as badly as the dog demon, which they had agreed on earlier. They figured that the easiest and fastest way to never have to see each other again was to come up with something for the account and then insist that the clients never bother them again with that teamwork nonsense. If they wanted to work with a team, they would play sports, they both commented one day.

Sesshomaru just wanted one good idea to get rid Naraku and to give him back his lunch hour, so that he could be with his angel. He was pleased that she at least called him every day that they did not see each other. She assured him that she was fine, which he always wanted to know. He would feel better if he could confirm that she was fine since he knew that she shared a home with that half-demon bastard.

The dog demon bet that he would feel better and be able to think more clearly if he could see that Kikyo was all right. After all, how could he focus on work if his woman might not be as fine as she claimed to be? Well, he decided to call her again, if only to relieve his stress.

Now, he knew that it was not a good idea for a male to phone a married female. There was always a chance that her husband might answer the phone, but he would take that chance for the simple fact that Kikyo told him that she never let her husband touch her cell phone. So, he grabbed his home phone and called her.

"Hello," Kikyo said.

"Can you come over?" Sesshomaru inquired. She was just about the only person that he requested things of. He supposed that it should be all right for her to come over with it being a weekend afternoon. The only thing that could possibly hold her back was the fact that she was probably with her sisters.

"Not right now," she answered.

"When?" he asked.

"In an hour."

"It'll do."

"All right," she said and she disconnected the call.

An hour later, Kikyo showed up as promised. He greeted her with a passionate kiss, giving her an idea how much she was missed; he would never admit to such a thing out loud. There were a lot of things about Kikyo that he would not confess to out loud.

"How did you get here?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"I took the bus," she answered.

"You know that you should call me," he stated.

"I would have, but I was already outside and you were here. I don't mind taking the bus, Sessho," she informed him.

"I would prefer you not doing that, though."

"Why?"

Sesshomaru acted as if he did not hear the question. He could not explain to her that he worried about her, especially when it came to her being outside on her own. He did not trust public transportation in the slightest; he did not even let his little sister ride such things unless she assured him that she was in a group.

"How was your week, Sessho?" Kikyo asked.

"Hell," he admitted while putting his arm around her waist and leading her to the sofa.

"Is there anything that I can do to help?" she inquired.

Sesshomaru only smirked and began another kiss. He almost sighed in relief in being able to hold her, touch her, and kiss her. Not only was she all right, but he could finally relax. He did not have to worry about something happening to her or that fool hanyou hurting her. All was right in the world as far as he was concerned.

"What would you like for dinner?" Sesshomaru inquired after Kikyo had been in the apartment for a couple of hours.

She thought on it. "How about I cook you dinner?" she offered.

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes. Do you have something here for me to prepare or do I have to go shopping?" she inquired.

"I should have something. On occasion I do cook," he answered.

"Well then, allow me," she proposed.

Before Sesshomaru could say anything, Kikyo picked herself up and went to the kitchen. He just watched her work. It was not the first time that a woman cooked for him, but it certainly was the first time that he was flattered by the move. It seemed like everything Kikyo did, he enjoyed, even if someone else had done it before and he had not cared. Kikyo just was special.

Sesshomaru silently admitted to himself that Kikyo gave him some strange feeling that he had never experienced before. He did not know what the feeling was, but he knew that it made him concerned for her and it made him feel content when she was around. He wished that she could just stay forever, especially when he tasted the meal that she prepared.

Kikyo was actually a great cook. She did not have much practice at it anymore, but she used to do it most of the time when she lived with her sisters. She was glad to do it for Sesshomaru for some reason that she did not bother with considering at the moment. She was just happy to sit with him and enjoy a meal.

Sesshomaru was pleased with getting to spend the day with Kikyo and he would have preferred that she could just stay the night at least, but he knew that it would be best to get her home. He drove her back to her apartment and then went back home. The second that he set foot in his apartment, he had a brilliant idea. He knew that spending time with Kikyo would be helpful.

--------------

Next time: Sesshomaru and Kikyo actually go on vacation together.


	9. Magic

I don't own these characters.

9: Magic

Sesshomaru went into work fairly confident that he was not going to have to see Naraku anymore. He had an excellent idea for what they should do and even if the irksome hanyou debated it with him, he would still present it to their clients because he was sure that they would approve of his plan. He was never going to have to see Naraku again; it was going to be a great day. There was also the fact that he would be free tomorrow to spend some time with Kikyo.

The dog demon was feeling better than he had in a long time about going to work thanks to his idea. He went to his office and nearly smiled because of just how good he felt. He waited for the inevitable, namely for Naraku to come in and harass him. He did not have to wait long.

"Tell me you have something, mutt," the half-demon practically snarled. He typically was never in a good mood, but his mood completely soured when he entered the dog demon's office.

"Look who's talking about being a mutt," Sesshomaru commented. "I do have something, though."

Naraku looked shocked, but Sesshomaru did not give him a chance to get over his shock. He pitched his idea to Naraku and he could see that the half-demon was going to object before he even opened his mouth. The nobleman was not looking to have Naraku undermine his brilliance, so as soon as he was finished speaking to the hayou, he picked up the phone to make a call.

"What are you doing?" Naraku demanded to know.

"Calling them," Sesshomaru answered.

"You can't call them. I don't agree with that stupid idea," Naraku declared.

Sesshomaru only graced the half-breed with a glance. He made the call and informed the clients what he thought of doing with their account. He then put them on speaker phone for Naraku to hear their opinion on the subject. The half-demon's face practically fell to the floor as the clients expressed joy with what the dog demon came up with. Sesshomaru hung up when the clients were done; they informed the partners that they wanted a visual presentation drawn up for next week when they were going to come by the office.

"There, it's done. You do your part and I do mine and you might be able to live through the week," Sesshomaru commented.

"Just make sure you do your part, mutt," Naraku huffed. He seemed very upset with what had just happened.

The dog demon did not respond. He just eyed Naraku until the half-demon wisely exited his office. He went into his desk and pulled out a sketchpad that he kept in his office. He was looking to get to work to get everything out of the way. He just wanted to make time to be with Kikyo.

"What has this woman done to me?" Sesshomaru wondered as he realized that Kikyo was the only person that he wanted to get to. It was not like he wanted to spend time with his little sister, who was really the only person that he usually gave his attention to for a prolonged period of time, but he just wanted to be with that strange, little human woman.

The platinum-haired male shrugged it off. He was a man that wanted what he wanted. He did not question his desire. He was perfect and he deserved whatever he wanted, just like he got whatever he wanted. It was that simple to him.

He wanted Kikyo and though he had her in some way, he wanted her to be totally his. He wanted her away from that damnable half-breed that she was married to. He wanted her to always be able to sleep next to him, sleep with him, just be in his arms, and in his company. There was something about that woman and he just wanted her.

Thinking about Kikyo, Sesshomaru picked up his phone and decided to find out what she was doing. He called her from his cell phone and had to wait a few rings before she answered. He nearly smiled just from the sound of her voice and all she did was answer the phone.

"Hello, Sessho," Kikyo said.

"Good day, Kikyo. Where are you right now?" he asked.

"I'm at home," she answered.

"That is odd. I figured you would be cruising some museum somewhere while waiting for noon to come along to have lunch with your sister," he commented.

"I sometimes just enjoy this place when he's gone. It is rather cozy," she informed him.

"And here it is I thought that you preferred my place."

Kikyo chuckled a bit. "I do. So, to what do I owe the honor of such an early call from you?" she inquired.

"I was just curious. I was thinking of you," he told her.

"Oh, how delightful. Don't you have work that you should be doing?" she inquired.

"I am doing it now, but I'm talking to you too. So, talk to me," he ordered in a gentle tone.

Kikyo laughed a bit again. She did continue talking to him. She was flattered that he would call her just to call her. It was sweet.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru and Naraku did work through their project and put together what they had. They were going to make the presentation to the clients and then they would never have to see each other ever again. Everything went smoothly and it ended with the clients being very satisfied with what they had received. The pair did make it clear that they would not do another such project again.

With that out of the way, Sesshomaru decided to celebrate that he would not have to spend anymore time with Naraku. He called Kikyo and informed her that he was taking her out to dinner that night. She did not object, but he was not done there. He would wait until they were face to face to run the other idea by her.

The dog demon picked Kikyo up after work; he knew that Naraku did not go straight home, so it was all right to go to the apartment. His creamy angel was not prepared for dinner, but that was all right. She had her outfit in her arms, but she was wearing her house clothes, which was a plain white shirt and baggy sweat pants.

Sesshomaru was a bit stunned by the clothing. He was also astonished by the fact that she looked rather attractive in such plain clothing. Damn dinner, his inner demon commented; it then suggested that he should just take her right then and there. He controlled himself, though.

"Sessho," Kikyo said because of the look on his face.

The nobleman cleared his throated to snap himself out of the daze. "Well, why aren't you dressed?" he inquired.

"I thought it would be a bit early for dinner, but if we're leaving immediately, I can go get dressed now," she replied.

"No, you make a point. I should change anyway. So, we can go to my apartment for a couple of hours and then we can go to dinner. About what time should I get you back here?" he asked.

"The same time as always," she answered.

Sesshomaru nodded and they went off to his apartment for a while before going to dinner. They sat down in a rather exclusive restaurant; she had come to expect such things from the dog demon. It was not that Sesshomaru was showing off his wealth; he was just used to the finer things that life had to offer.

"This is more than I'm used to with you," Kikyo commented. The restaurant was more swanky than usual.

"It's a celebration," Sesshomaru replied.

"Is it? For what?"

"I closed my account today. I don't have to work with that bastard of a partner I had. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me," he explained.

"I'm glad for you," she said.

"Yes, so I was thinking of taking a vacation."

"Oh," she muttered. She was not sure what to say. He was going to be gone for who knew how long and she did not really like that thought. She did not want to be without him for an undetermined amount of time.

"I want you join me," he added.

"Join you?" she echoed in a puzzled tone. It was like she did not understand what he meant.

"Yes, join me. I believe you deserve some time away from home. We could fly far away," he said and then he reached across the table. He took her small hand in his and massaged her hand with his thumb. "We could travel the world and see all of the art that you wish. We could see so much and also make love in every city on Earth," he commented.

Kikyo smiled softly. "That latter part suits you best, hmm?" she taunted him.

"Indeed. I will take you anywhere you wish to go. We will do anything you wish to do. So, what do you say?" he inquired. He doubted that she would turn him down. He really did not care where they went; he had already seen a great deal of the world and had done most of the things that he wanted to do. All that was left was to do everything again, but with Kikyo there. He did have the one desire of making love to her on every city on Earth, so he figured that they needed to get started.

"I would love to go with you, but it would be a bit difficult to explain my disappearance for a long amount of time," she replied.

"I can see your point. Your sisters wouldn't cover for you?" he asked curiously.

"Well, I doubt that they would approve of me going with you all over the world to make love in every city on Earth," she remarked.

"I can see your point yet again."

"They don't know about us, anyway," Kikyo admitted.

"No? That's all right. I can see why you wouldn't say anything about us. Consider the offer, angel. I won't make any plans until I hear from you," he said.

Kikyo nodded and she did think on it. It was a very tempting offer. She would love to do just about anything with Sesshomaru where she could be outside with him and hold onto him as if he was her husband. It would be a great thing, but how could she get away with such a thing?

She could not just up and leave for a week or more. First of all, her sisters would worry about her, even if she called them everyday. They might even suspect something and go after Naraku. She did not want to cause that kind of trouble.

Even without causing the trouble, how could she come up with an excuse to leave the city for a week or longer than that? She thought on it and thought on it hard. She really wanted an excuse to be able to leave with Sesshomaru. She just wanted to be with him uninterrupted. The funny thing was that Naraku would offer her the chance for that.

One day, Kikyo noticed Naraku packing a bag. She craned a curious, elegant ebony eyebrow. She had to ask.

"What are you doing?" the pale woman inquired.

"I have to go on a business trip," he answered.

"A business trip?" she echoed.

"Yes," he said in a clipped tone. He had a plan working in his mind now that he was established at his firm and he wanted to get to it. He was going to earn his deserved fortune and gain all the power that he wanted starting with his trip to set things up.

"For how long?" she asked.

"I don't know. A week or two," he answered.

Kikyo practically squealed on the inside; she could not believe what the thought of being with Sesshomaru was doing to her. She made sure to remain composed while Naraku continued to pack. She did not know where he was going and she did not care. She did not care what he had planned; she knew that he was scheming on something, but he could do that to his heart's content. She was going to go with Sesshomaru wherever she wanted to and be with him without having to worry about anything for a week or more.

--------------

Sesshomaru smiled as Kikyo informed him that she was free for a week or maybe even more. She did not know where she wanted to spend that free week, but she did not really care. She told him that she would not mind even just staying in the city right now as long as she got to be with him. She sounded almost giddy to his well-tuned ears; the sound made him feel almost the same.

Sesshomaru decided on where to take Kikyo. He also decided to call someone to trail Naraku. He wanted to know how long the damned half-demon was going to be gone precisely. As long as he knew how long the fool hanyou was going to be gone, he knew how long he could keep Kikyo out of the city. He did not care what so-called business that repulsive half-breed was handling; all he wanted to know was when the jackass was coming back to the city.

The day after Naraku left, Sesshomaru and Kikyo were on a plane headed overseas. It was time to start his desire and her dream. For the trip with his limited knowledge for the moment, he made plans for them to stay in two cities, but if they had more time, he had plans for other cities.

When they landed, Kikyo was asleep. Sesshomaru did not bother with waking her and collected her in his arms. He carried her off of the plane along with their bags. He had a car waiting for them and the driver knew where to take them. He held Kikyo through out the ride and carried her into the lobby of their hotel. He continued to hold her in his arms while checking in.

"That is sweet of you, sir," the desk clerk commented when she saw Sesshomaru holding Kikyo.

Sesshomaru did not respond. He did not want to sit there and talk to a hotel employee about anything. The clerk continued on about how it was sweet that he would carry his wife like that instead of waking her up. Sesshomaru's face twitched when the clerk referred to Kikyo as his wife; he nearly smiled. A warm feeling actually spread through his body when his angel was called his wife.

He decided not to be so rude to the clerk now and even thanked her as she gave him the keycard to his room. He made sure to keep good hold on Kikyo as he went up to their suite; their bags were brought up by the hotel staff. When he was in the room, he put Kikyo down on the bed and just stared at her.

"My wife," Sesshomaru whispered as he gently caressed her cheek. His fingers traveled to her neck. "My mate," he stated.

She was his. He was going to get her away from that bastard hanyou if it was the last thing that he did. He could hardly believe that he felt so strongly for a human female, but he did. He wanted the little human in his company to be his and his alone, forever and always, and he would have her come Hell or high water.

Sesshomaru stopped thinking about it and just lay down next to Kikyo. He held her close and fell sleep. When they rose, they were going to be busy.

--------------

Kikyo had both of her arms wrapped around Sesshomaru's limb as they strolled through the halls of an art museum. She seemed so happy, he noted, even though one could not tell from the look on her face. It was just the way that she was holding his arm, in a firm, secure grip, but she occasionally ran her fingers across his bicep.

Sesshomaru half-focused on the art around them and half-focused on the males around the place. He noticed more men than he liked eyeing Kikyo; one was too many in his opinion. He supposed that he should expect as much; he did have a beautiful woman on his arm. But, he was possessive of that woman. She was his and that was that. His attention was drawn to Kikyo when he heard her sigh deeply.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"No, I just…I can't believe I'm here with you. Thank you so much," she answered.

"Don't thank me over it. Just enjoy the moment," he said.

Kikyo did enjoy the moment. She enjoyed the museum. She really could not believe that she was in a famous museum, viewing paintings that she had only seen photos of with the demon that she was had strong feelings for. She would not say that she was falling in love; that was just too deep in her opinion.

Sesshomaru would agree with her. Love was not an emotion he would admit to or even consider. He understood and accepted that he felt something strong and deep for her. He accepted that he wanted to be with her, claim her as his own, but he would not for a second ever say that he loved her.

In his opinion, love was an emotion for sentimental fools that allowed someone else to control them. He would never allow an emotion or a person control his actions. He was the great Sesshomaru, after all. He was never going to be in love with a person; well, that was what he told himself.

"What shall we do after this?" he inquired.

"I don't know. This is rather overwhelming," she confessed.

Sesshomaru smiled a bit; he was enjoying his vacation so far. They continued to cruise the museum and then they had lunch. To top the evening off before returning to their hotel room, they caught a play. For Kikyo, it was like a dream.

"Sessho, I doubt I could ever thank you enough for this one day, so I don't know what I'm going to do about the rest of the week," Kikyo commented.

"I'm sure we'll come up with something," he replied with an almost lecherous smirk and he placed his hands on her hips as she opened the door to their suite.

"I'm starting to think that you only want me for one thing," she teased him as they entered the room. When she had first woken up and saw where they were staying, it had shocked her. Their suite looked like something out of a movie.

"I do," he informed her.

"And what is that one thing?" she asked him while turning around to face him. He kept his hands on her hips and occasionally let them wander further behind her.

"You," he answered in a whisper and he leaned down to steal a small kiss.

"Me?" she asked as if she was skeptical.

"Yes, you," he repeated his words and his actions.

"Interesting," she said.

"I'll bet," he muttered. He was not looking to hold a conversation at the moment.

Sesshomaru claimed Kikyo's mouth with his own in a passionate kiss. She met him with her own zeal. She silently admitted that she never wanted a male like she wanted him. Yes, she was still modest to certain extent, but she always tried to meet his desire with her own. There was nothing wrong with that, she told herself. They were adults, after all.

The dog demon hardly thought at all when it came to road that they were traveling. He only had one thing on his mind and focused everything on that. He began unbuttoning Kikyo's shirt as he slowly moved them both toward the bed; although he could care less than nothing if they made it to the bed or not.

She hissed as his hands came in contact with her skin. He caressed her ribs for a moment or so and then pushed her shirt from her shoulders. He then moved his hands from her ribs to her more fleshy parts. She was like a work of art, he thought.

"So perfect," he whispered against her lips as he removed her bra.

He meant that. She was perfect. Everything about her was perfect from her body to her mind. That was why she was his, because she was perfect.

"Kikyo," he said.

"Hmm?" she made a noise while leaning in for another kiss, but she was denied.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Hmm?" she repeated the noise because she was confused on what he was asking and she really just wanted another hot kiss.

"What do you want?" he inquired once more.

"What do you mean?" she countered while trying once again for her kiss, but he was not complying at the moment.

"What do you want? We both know what I want, so what do you want?" he said.

Kikyo understood what he wanted. He desired for her to admit to wanting him, even if it was very obvious from the way that she was behaving. She supposed that she could do that. He did it quite often.

"You," she answered.

"Then you shall have me," he stated.

Sesshomaru leaned down to give Kikyo the burning, but loving kiss that she had been going for. She could feel such emotion in his kiss that she seriously felt her knees go weak; the fact that he was touching her breasts might have helped in that happening. He was gently massaging her skin, being very careful of his claws to make sure he did not accidentally cut her. She did not even think about his talons whenever he touched her because he was so tender when he did it.

The dog demon worked himself out of his shirt while making sure to keep her attention. Once he was free of his shirt, he pulled her closer to him to feel her skin against his skin. He groaned deep in his throat as their bodies touched and she began moving against him just a bit. She wrapped her arms around him and started rubbing his back. She was a lot less shy now than when they had first begun their little affair, he noted.

Sesshomaru's hands wandered down to her pants and unfastened those with practiced ease. He did not let her step out of the pants, but picked her up once the buttons were undone. He carried her to the bed and put her down on the soft, silk sheets. He then removed her pants with such swiftness that one might have thought that he ripped the trousers off, but no, the cloth remained intact.

He was certain that he would never get sick of the sight before him, Kikyo completely bare to him. He sometimes saw the image at work when he closed his eyes to blink. There were other odd things, like he could feel her on his fingertips even when she was not around. He could taste her on the tip of his tongue when he was alone and had not seen her all day. It was bizarre, but he did not care. She could invade his mind all she wanted; he welcomed it. He obviously did not count that as her having some sort of power over him.

Kikyo could understand his predicament. At all hours of the day, she could just feel him touching her, kissing her, caressing her. It was an odd thing and even though she did enjoy it, she tried to ignore it. She did not see why her body seemed to feel him when he was not around and she did not think that it was necessary.

Sesshomaru joined Kikyo down on the bed and they proceeded to do the one thing that he wanted to do while on vacation. They went through out the night and well into morning. It felt so right when they were together; they could not explain it, but it just felt so completely and totally right when they were together. It was like they were made for each other.

--------------

Next time: the couple is found out. But, by whom?


	10. Let's roll

I don't own these characters.

10: Let's roll

Six cities in fourteen days; Kikyo's head was still spinning from that trip. Sesshomaru had treated her like a queen through out the whole thing. He made sure that she got to see everything that she wanted to see while they were in certain cities and he also took her to places that he figured she would like, even though she had never heard of them. He bought her gifts, even though she did not want any.

Sesshomaru wanted to do everything that he could for his chocolate-eyed angel. He wanted her to get used to the finer things in life. He would always treat her like the angel she was and he wanted her to know that. He figured that once she completely believed that she was safe with him and that he was not just putting on a front, then she would leave her filthy, undeserving bastard husband. She would then be his completely and totally.

He had been getting some odd reports on Naraku's movements from the person that he had trailing the hanyou. He really just wanted to know when Naraku was heading back home, but his servant, a little toad demon named Jaken, was calling him about the fact that it seemed like Naraku was just being weird. The half-demon seemed to be visiting banks and it also looked like he was considering purchasing a large plot of land, possibly to have a house built.

Sesshomaru was only a bit interested in the news. Was Naraku planning on moving? He did not care about that, but he was curious if Kikyo was going to be moving with that half-breed bastard. He would not allow Naraku to take Kikyo away from him. He would seriously challenge that dirty, irksome wretch to a duel in the middle of street and slaughter the crimson-eyed annoyance before he let Naraku take Kikyo somewhere.

At the moment, the secret couple were on their way back to their lives. Kikyo was sleeping on the plane again, leaning against the dog demon. He did not mind, of course. He was caressing her cheek, which was helping to keep her relaxed and asleep. He was going to make her spend the night with him when they landed, even if Naraku was at her home. He just was not ready to let her go.

Sesshomaru did not want to wake Kikyo up when they landed. He just wanted her to remain comfortable, so he grabbed the carry on bags and slung them over his shoulder. He then gathered her in his arms and proceeded to carry her off the plane. The other passengers were incredulous to what they were seeing.

No one could believe that a demon was with a human first of all. Then they could not believe that a guy would not wake up his girl and make her walk. Women quickly turned to glare at their men; Sesshomaru ignored all of this behavior.

The dog demon had arranged for a car to pick them up and he carried Kikyo all the way to the car while the driver got their bags. He cradled Kikyo in the car and she curled into his chest. He was as close to smiling as he ever would be in public.

"Beautiful wife you got there, mister," the driver commented.

"Just drive," Sesshomaru commanded.

The golden-eyed male was not interested in hearing any compliments toward Kikyo, especially from another male. The driver did not seem to appreciate the order; or so the sudden frown on his face implied. Being a demon himself, the driver decided that he was not going to allow anyone, even a patron, be rude to him; one could imagine that it was hard for demons to keep service jobs because of their attitudes.

"Although she is just a little human. Where'd you buy her? Maybe I can get one," the driver remarked.

The driver did not know who he was talking to. Sesshomaru was not only a demon male holding a human woman that he cared deeply for, but he also had a little sister that was human. He disliked hearing any demon even joke about buying a human, which used to go on quite a bit in the past and still existed on the black market. All he could think about was if something that happened to his little sister or one of her annoying little friends. He would end up killing everyone involved.

"Listen carefully, if you don't want to paint the windshield with your blood and brains, you'll drive the car and keep your mouth shut," Sesshomaru warned the male while cracking his knuckles on one hand. He had plans to let his energy whip fly if the fool wanted to keep at it.

Driver looked into the rear-view mirror and caught the serious glint in Sesshomaru's golden eyes. He wisely did not open his mouth and just focused on driving the car. The dog demon leaned back into the car and enjoyed holding on Kikyo.

Sesshomaru was not bothered by the driver for the rest of the trip. They arrived at his apartment complex and he had no problem taking Kikyo and the bags upstairs. He put the bags down by the door and carried her to his bed. He placed her down and that was when she woke up.

"Sessho?" Kikyo called out as he started toward the door.

"Yes?" Sesshomaru replied and turned around to face his angel.

"Have we arrived already?" she asked.

"Yes. We're at my home. Go back to sleep."

"What time is it?" she inquired while sitting up.

Sesshomaru looked at his clock by the bed because he had not corrected the time on his watch yet. It was actually the afternoon. She was probably going to want to get up, he reasoned. She glanced over at the clock to see what time it was and she did get out of the bed immediately.

"I probably should go home," Kikyo said.

"It's all right. Your husband isn't there yet," Sesshomaru replied.

"How do you know?" she asked curiously.

"I just know. Would I steer you wrong, angel?"

"No," she easily answered.

"So, relax."

Kikyo nodded. "Sessho, where is my sketchbook?" she asked. She was somewhat keeping the book at his home since he would not give it back to her.

"I'll get it for you," he replied.

The dog demon left the bedroom as did Kikyo. She retreated to the sofa while Sesshomaru retrieved her book and one of his own. He handed her the sketchbook and sat down next to her. They began drawing; she worked with pen while he had a charcoal stick. They silently enjoyed each other's company while just drawing together.

--------------

Kikyo was preparing to take a shower before going to bed. She hoped that Sesshomaru was correct about Naraku not being home yet. It was not that she was afraid of the half-demon, but she did not want to have to deal with him. There was also the fact that if she had to deal with him, he would actually be in the right.

She was the one having an affair, after all. She sighed; she really did not want to travel down that road in her mind. Yes, there were all sorts of moral issues in her life now, but at least she was content; at least, she was content when she was with Sesshomaru. And speaking of the nobleman, he stepped into the bathroom.

"Sessho, what are you doing?" Kikyo inquired.

"I thought that I might join you," he replied.

"Join me?"

"Yes, join you."

"In the shower?" she asked in a puzzled tone.

"Yes."

Kikyo still did not seem to grasp what he meant. He thought that was one of the many endearing things about her, just how naïve she could be while being so intelligent and educated. He knew that she would get it in a moment, especially since they had bathed together several times over the vacation. The only difference was those had been actual baths and now she was talking about taking a shower.

"Why would you want to join me in a small space like the shower?" Kikyo asked.

Sesshomaru only smirked; why indeed. She did not argue with him and they had a rather hot shower in more ways than one. Things did not stop there either. Sesshomaru did not allow his angel to touch the floor when the shower ended. He lifted her up and carried her into his bedroom. He figured that they should have one last passionate night before he had to return her to a bastard that did not care about her at all and did not deserve her at all.

The couple was intimate with each other until the early morning. Kikyo fell asleep curled up very close to her paramour. He smiled silently to himself; life was supposed to be somewhat as it was. Life really was supposed to be where she was his and he did not have to let her leave later on because she had to return to her husband.

Sesshomaru wondered if he had offended some divine being that he did not know about. It would explain why he had met the perfect woman for him, but she happened to be married to the most annoying and vile creature on the planet. Not to mention she was also a human. It sounded pretty damn ironic to him; something that could only be brought on by fate.

--------------

Rin put her key in the door and turned the lock to be allowed access to the apartment. She put her keys back around her neck as she opened the door and stepped inside. She had made sure to shut the door as quietly as possible since her brother had sensitive ears. She took her low-cut sneakers off at the door and put her skates down beside her shoes. She looked around and was a bit shocked that the place was lifeless.

She suspected that her brother had slept in since it was the weekend; it was something that her brothers always did. She walked to the back first to go check and see if he might be doing some early morning painting, but he was not in his studio. She figured that he was in the bed. She went to go wake him up, just to let him know that she was going to be there for a while before heading off to the skate park.

She headed to the bedroom and cracked the door open. She poked her head inside the room and caught a glimpse of someone in the bed that she knew was not her brother. She only got a brief look at the face and knew it was a woman; a very familiar looking woman. Before she could get a better look, her big brother was blocking her view.

"Rin, what are you doing here so early?" Sesshomaru inquired as he stepped out of the room, forcing Rin to back up. He was dressed in plain white cotton pants and a sleeveless tee-shirt.

"I'm meeting my friends at the skate park in an hour, so I thought I'd lounge around your apartment for a while. Who was that, big brother?" Rin shamelessly asked while pointing in the bedroom.

"None of your concern," Sesshomaru answered in his usual tone, but it did not seem so cold when he was addressing Rin. He used to wonder how such a little human could make him seem so unlike himself. He used to even remind himself that she was not really his sister, as if that would help him regain his usual manner when she was around, but that never happened.

"I think I know her," Rin said.

"You think you know her?" he echoed.

"I think so, but I didn't get a good look at her," the preteen answered.

"And you won't get a good look at her," he informed her.

"Why not? I won't make the same mistake as I did in front of your last girlfriend," Rin vowed. It was not really a mistake that she made in front of his last girlfriend. She just had not liked that demoness much because the female was mean and uppity, so Rin mentioned that Sesshomaru usually dated much prettier girls and started a world war as far as she could tell.

"You're not going to meet her, Rin. Now, you may remain here until you have to meet your friends, but you will not make a lot of noise and you will eat something before you leave," he commanded.

"Actually, I had breakfast at home. Mommy caught me running out of the house and forced me to eat," she told him.

"Good. Now, be very quiet while you're out here."

"Yes, sir," she grinned at him while giving him a mock salute.

Sesshomaru eyed her suspiciously for a moment before leaving her out in the apartment on her own. He returned to the bedroom and settled back down next to Kikyo. He figured that she should be asleep until Rin left.

The only reason that he did not want Rin to meet Kikyo was because he thought that Rin would run home, telling the tale of how he had a new girlfriend. Their father would then make it his business to know as much about Kikyo as possible and he would find out that she was married. His father would not take that news well and Sesshomaru would never hear the end of how disgraceful it was for him to chase a married woman.

Sesshomaru gathered Kikyo up in his arms just to enjoy the feel of her against him. She was made for him and it was that simple. She just jumped the gun and got married before they got to meet each other. One day, the mistake would be corrected, he was sure of that.

Rin raided her brother's refrigerator while thinking about the woman that was in his bed. She was certain that she knew the woman, even though she had not gotten the best look at her face. But, as she thought about it, she doubted that it was who she thought it was. The woman that she was thinking of was married after all and she would never do anything remotely considered wrong. Still, it did seem like the woman that she was thinking.

The preteen watched some television before she got a text message on her cell phone asking where she was. She grabbed her skates and put them on. She put her sneakers over her shoulder and took off for the skate park that was up the street from her brother's apartment.

"Hey, guys!" Rin greeted her friends with a huge grin on her face.

The trio that Rin hung out with looked up when they heard her jubilant voice. Two of them wondered how she could sound so chipper early in the morning, even though they did not mind the time. They just did not think that it was appropriate to sound so happy. The third member of their group nearly matched Rin's enthusiasm when he replied to her call.

"Hey, Rin!" Shippo replied with a monstrous smile on his face.

Kaede and Kohaku only glanced at the fox demon. They figured that his energy was brought by too much sugar in the morning while Rin's energy came from who knew where. Their energy usually did not come until they fell off of a rail a few times.

"Why is it you live the closest to this place, but you're always the last one here?" Kaede asked Rin in a teasing tone and the other girl just shrugged as a response.

Kaede and Rin had been best friends for forever as far as they were considered. They really could not remember a time that they were not friends. They tried to do everything together, which included rides to the hospital when they messed up on some tricks when they were on their in-line skates.

They both knew Kohaku because his sister was friends with Rin's brother and Kaede's cousin. Kohaku was a couple of years older than they were, but he hung out with them because he liked skating as much as they did. They all liked going to the park and jumping off of things with their blades. It was freeing in his opinion and they would agree with that.

They met Shippo in school a couple of years back when he was the new kid. He was more fascinated in watching them skate than actually doing any work himself, especially when he saw what happened when they fell. They typically laughed off any injuries, except for when they broke something and they did break quite a few bones. He did not see how they could laugh. He at least thought that the girls would cry when they fell, but no, they were the main ones that laughed.

"Hey, Kaede," Rin said.

"Yeah, what?" Kaede replied as she sat down to put on her skates.

"Is your sister still married?" Rin asked.

"Yeah," Kaede answered and then she looked up at her best friend. "Why would you ask that question?" she inquired with a bewildered look on her face. It seemed like such a weird question in her opinion.

"No, I just thought I saw her at my brother's apartment, but if she's still married, it couldn't be her," Rin answered.

"Why not? Inuyasha and Kikyo know each other, so she might have been there," Kaede commented.

"No, it wasn't Inuyasha's house. I went to Sesshomaru's house and his girlfriend was there in the bed. I thought she looked a lot like Kikyo, but it couldn't be Kikyo if she's still married," Rin explained and then dismissed it all with a wave of her hand. She was pretty sure that she was mistaken in what she saw.

"Sesshomaru?" Kaede echoed. "Is he tall with silver hair?"

"Yeah."

"Into art?"

"Yeah, he paints," Rin answered.

"Holy shit," Kaede muttered as she was struck by a realization. Normally, she would never think to say such profane words, but the thought in her head was just too much. It required a forceful declaration.

"What?" her friends asked. They were all curious now, especially since Kaede had used foul language.

"It might have been Kikyo," Kaede stated. She knew that Kikyo had a demon friend and she had said his name a few times, but Kaede had never really listened because she was always going on about museums or art when she talked about him, but she was pretty sure that his name was Sesshomaru.

"You're kidding," all three friends said. They had all met Kikyo. There was no way that she would do something like what Kaede was trying to tell them.

"Guys, I hope I am kidding," Kaede said.

"There's a way to find out," Rin suggested.

"And what way is that?" Kohaku asked, knowing that she had something mischievous in mind. Rin was always good for something that would get them in trouble at the least and killed at the most.

"We could go in the apartment when it's empty and look around," Rin proposed.

"You mean snoop around," Kohaku corrected her.

"Brilliant idea!" Kaede agreed with her best friend.

"I don't think this is a good idea, guys," Shippo tried to object because he had heard tales of Rin's eldest brother. He was not a very friendly demon. Shippo was ignored by the girls, who knew that the fox demon was a coward and they knew that Kohaku would go along with just about anything because he was a pretty laidback guy.

"Lemme just find out when he's going to be gone," Rin said and she pulled out her cell phone.

Rin called up her eldest brother. She started out telling him that she figured that she was going to spend the night at his place since it was a long weekend and she might want to go skating with her friends again. He did not put up much of an argument, but he did tell her that he was not home right now if she was planning to return. He also informed her that he was not sure when he would be back in, so he would appreciate if she did not destroy his apartment if she arrived before him. She agreed and ended the call.

"Guys, we can go right now," Rin informed her clique.

"Let's go," Kaede suggested with wide, sneaky grin.

"Let's hurry because he could come back at anytime," Rin stated.

Kaede nodded to show that she understood and the best friends skated off in a hurry. Kohaku grabbed Shippo and followed behind the impulsive girls. Kohaku situated the little kitsune on his back as he tried to keep pace with the girls. He quietly noted that he was going to have to work out more if he was going to have to carry Shippo every time Rin or Kaede got a "bright" idea. Shippo merely spent the time shivering just thinking about what might happen if Rin's brother found them in his home.

It did not take them much time to get to Sesshomaru's apartment; they did almost get hit by several vehicles on the way there, though. Rin opened the door and motioned for her friends to wait outside. She went in to make sure the coast was clear. She took off her skates and quickly searched the house while calling for her big brother. It seemed that it was safe for her friends to come in.

"All right guys, he's not here. Come in and make sure you take your skates off at the door," Rin instructed.

The friends all nodded to show that they understood. They walked in and took their skates off, or their shoes in Shippo's case. They then looked around the apartment and they could not help feeling as they owed Rin money just for letting them in the glorious place.

"All right, let's start looking," Rin declared.

"Looking for what exactly?" Kohaku inquired.

"I dunno. Stuff that you recognize from Kikyo," Rin answered.

"And if we don't find anything?" Kohaku asked.

"Well, we still had fun going through someone else's stuff," Rin replied.

Man, she could find a bright side to anything, Kohaku thought as he began to help them with their search. He thought that they were wasting their time. He knew Kikyo just as well as Rin did and he did not believe that she would be seeing Sesshomaru while she was married. She just was not that kind of woman.

"This is stupid," Kohaku muttered. He really would rather be skating right now. He had moves that he wanted to try out and everything. "You two owe for this, especially if we don't find anything," he informed the two girls.

"You're so cranky in the morning," Rin teased him.

Kohaku did not respond to that as he started his search in a bookcase. He doubted that he would find anything there, even if there was evidence of Kikyo being in the house, which was why he picked that spot to look. He really did not feel like acting like he was some kind of private investigator.

Shippo looked too frightened to touch anything. It did not help matters that he knew that Sesshomaru, being a dog demon, would know that they were in his home regardless of the fact if they were gone by the time he got there. He did have a working nose, after all. The little fox demon wondered what was going to happen when Sesshomaru realized that they were there and worse yet, when he realized that they had been going through his things.

Rin and Kaede could careless than nothing about what Sesshomaru was going to do when he found out that they were in his home. They were just rummaging through everything because they wanted to know if the woman that Rin saw was indeed Kikyo. Rin had the eyes and Kaede had the information, so it might have actually been Kikyo.

Rin took the bedroom while Kaede went through the living room. They did not find anything worth much to them. Rin moved on to the bathroom in the bedroom and noticed that there were two toothbrushes in there. She used the main bathroom when she stayed at the apartment, so she knew that it was not her toothbrush. Hmm, it seemed that whoever it was that was in the bed stayed over enough to need a toothbrush.

"Find anything?" Rin asked as she returned to the outside rooms.

"Nothing," the three friends answered.

"Hmm…where else is there to look?" Rin wondered aloud.

The preteen girl looked at her best friend and it seemed like they were both struck by the same idea. Kaede asked about Sesshomaru's art workshop and Rin pointed to where the room was. Both girls went in there and started going through whatever they could get their hands on. Rin found something interesting first.

"These don't look anything like his sketches," Rin commented as she flipped through a sketch book.

"Lemme see," Kaede requested and Rin showed her best friend, who gasped.

"What?" Rin inquired.

"That's Kikyo's sketchbook. She never lets it out of her sight," Kaede answered.

Rin glanced back down at the drawing book and the only thing that she could think was that Kikyo was a very talented artist. Well, that and Kikyo was cheating on her husband with Sesshomaru. Now that they had evidence, it seemed like skating would have been a better idea because now they did not know what to do with such deep knowledge. Ignorance certainly was bliss.

--------------

Next time: Can these guys keep a secret?


	11. Silence

I don't own these characters.

11: Silence

Rin and Kaede looked at each other in disbelief. They had just discovered Kikyo's sketchbook in Sesshomaru's apartment. Now, to most people that might not seem like much. It would only confirm that Kikyo had been in Sesshomaru's apartment at one point in time, but Kaede knew better. Finding her big sister's sketchbook was like finding her underwear in the demon's apartment; hell, it might have been better if they found her underwear. They probably could explain undergarments better than her sketchbook being in the apartment.

"Okay, okay, okay," Kaede said, but she did not know what she wanted to state.

"Okay what? Kikyo is having an affair with Sesshomaru. Man, that would be so cool if she wasn't married," Rin realized in an absent tone.

"Okay, I knew what we're going to do," Kaede said.

"What?"

"We'll put the book back where we found it. Get the hell out of here and never mention it again," Kaede proposed.

Rin thought on it for a moment. "Agreed," she said.

Nothing good could come from them knowing that their old siblings were having an affair, they believed. The knowledge could only cause trouble for two people that they utterly adored. So, it would be best if they pretended that nothing ever happened. It sounded rather good in their heads.

"All right, let's get out of here," Rin said.

They put the sketchbook back and hurried out of the room. They gathered the boys and rushed them to put on their footwear. The girls were acting peculiar, Kohaku thought; yeah, they were acting weird even for them. He wondered if something was wrong.

"Did you two find something?" Kohaku inquired as they all exited the apartment and Rin locked it up.

"No, we didn't find anything," both girls insisted too forcefully in his opinion.

"What did you find?" the older boy asked.

"Nothing!" the girls answered.

"You two," Kohaku said.

"We just found Kikyo's sketchbook," Kaede told him and tried her best to make it seem like it was trivial. She was not doing the best job considering how well Kohaku knew her and she as obviously upset with something along with Rin.

"You mean the sketchbook that she won't let anyone ever see?" he asked.

"Look, we agreed that we wouldn't talk about this, okay," Kaede informed him.

"And why did you agree on that?" Kohaku inquired.

"Because nothing good can come from us knowing that Kikyo and Sesshomaru are having an affair," Rin pointed out.

"So don't tell anybody," Kaede ordered the boys.

Kohaku shrugged. He did not see why such a topic would come up in a conversation, so he doubted that he would have an opportunity to share the information even if he wanted to. He really could not believe that Kikyo was having an affair, though; he was not the only one.

"Shippo, you'd better not tell anyone," Kaede seemed to threaten the smaller boy.

"I won't!" Shippo promised.

"Seriously, don't say anything to anyone," Rin said.

The girls knew that Shippo was the most likely out of them to talk when they were around the older people in their lives. He would probably blab it to Kagome while trying to get close to her or say something after suffering some abuse from Inuyasha, who did not like the fox demon much because, well, Shippo was always trying to get close to Kagome. It never seemed to enter Inuyasha's mind that Kagome could not possibly be interested in Shippo because she was almost ten years older than he was and she seemed to be hopelessly attracted to violent, crazy half-demons like Inuyasha.

Once the friends were in total agreement that they were not going to say anything about the affair, they went back to skating. They parted ways at around nine and Rin went back to Sesshomaru's house. He was home and reading on the sofa.

"Hey, big brother," Rin greeted him from the door as she started unbuckling her skates.

"Rin," Sesshomaru said in a smooth tone.

"Yes?"

"Why were your friends in here?" he inquired. He could smell her friends all over the place.

Rin did not waver at all. She knew that he would be aware that she had her clique in his apartment. It was not the first time that she brought one or all of them over when he was not around. They usually came in to use the bathroom or get something to drink. Every now and then, they would watch a movie when he was not there.

"The usual stuff," she answered as to why her friends were there.

"You know better than to bring your company into my house without informing me," he reprimanded her.

"I know, but you know how it goes," she replied with a grin that seemed to make every bad thing that she did become something neutral or even good.

Sesshomaru only snorted. "See that it doesn't happen again."

"I'll try. So, big brother, who was that woman early?" Rin asked again as she joined him on the sofa. She wanted to see if he would confess to her. It would make her feel like it was not as big a deal as it seemed if he admitted who she was.

"I told that you don't need to concern yourself with who she was," he replied.

That answer did not make Rin feel any better about what was going on. Did her brother know that Kikyo was married? He had to know because Kikyo would not lie about something like that, but then again, she did not think that Kikyo was capable of having an affair until today anyway. Maybe he did not know, therefore he was not so bad, but that only made Kikyo worse. And besides, when was there a time that her eldest brother did not know everything about a situation before getting involved? He had to know that Kikyo was a married woman.

How could her big brother do what he was doing? How could he make Kikyo do something so wrong? He should have stopped things before they even started. Halting things before they got to where they were was the responsible thing to do.

"Rin," Sesshomaru said.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No," Rin squeaked out. Did he know that she knew? "Why would you even ask?" she inquired.

"Because you're staring at me and not saying anything," he informed her. She was just eyeing him as if she was in deep thought and she did not seem to like what was in her mind.

"Oh, sorry. Can I watch TV?" she requested, as if that was what she was considering.

"Go ahead," he answered.

Sesshomaru was a bit curious as to what made his little sister look so intense. He wondered what was on her mind. He figured that she would tell him in due time because she always did.

--------------

Kaede entered the apartment that she lived in with Midoriko. It was a spacious place with white walls that were decorated with pictures of the sisters and their family. The floors were wooden and everything was clean.

She took her skates off at the door and placed them in the hall closet. She peered around to see if her eldest sister was around. She really did not feel like seeing Midoriko right now because she was scared that she might actually tell on Kikyo. So, she tried to sneak into her room.

"Good evening, Kaede," Midoriko called from the kitchen, which caused the girl to stop in her tracks. It would seem that she had forgotten that her sister could sense people.

"Hey," Kaede replied without bothering to go see her eldest sister, which was odd.

"Go wash up. Dinner is ready."

"Yes, ma'am."

Midoriko craned an ebony eyebrow to the use of the word "ma'am." Her little sister was never so polite when they were alone in the apartment. Wait, Kaede did not even call her "ma'am" when they were in the street unless she was playing around. Something was decidedly wrong.

Midoriko studied her baby sister as she came to have dinner. She noted that Kaede seemed to be making an effort not to look at her while they sat down at the table. The girl was also playing with her food, which was not typical of Kaede.

"Kaede, are you all right?" the eldest sister inquired.

"Fine, why do you ask?" Kaede countered in a suspicious tone.

"You seem distracted. Anything happen today?"

"Nothing more than usual," the preteen answered a bit too rapidly.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive," Kaede replied and then she figured that since she was already talking to Midoriko, maybe she could see if there was some other explanation for why Kikyo's sketchbook might have been in Sesshomaru's apartment. "Hey, big sis," the child said.

"Yes?" Midoriko replied.

"Has Kikyo ever forgotten her sketchbook anywhere before?"

"Not to my knowledge. You know that thing is like her baby, so it would be very odd for her to just forget it somewhere. Why would you ask?"

"No reason, just curious," the youngest sister answered.

"It was an odd question."

"I know, but sometimes weird things just pop into my head, you know? Sis, do you remember the name of Kikyo's demon friend?"

"I believe she said that his name is Sesshomaru. Why?" Midoriko inquired. Her baby sister was certainly coming up with some bizarre topics of conversation.

"I think that's Rin's big brother," Kaede replied.

"Small world. I thought that Kikyo already knew Rin's big brother, though."

"She has two. Sesshomaru's not really social, so not too many people know him."

"That's rather amusing that they would meet then," Midoriko commented.

Kaede looked away. It was not amusing at all. Their sister was having an affair with Sesshomaru, after all. Now, Kaede was not really judging Kikyo considering the heartless bastard that her sister was married to, she could understand Kikyo seeking affection from other sources. But, she could not believe that Rin had seen Kikyo in Sesshomaru's bed, meaning Kikyo was sleeping with him.

Kaede did not think that Kikyo would ever sleep with another guy while she was married. Really, she did not even think that her sisters had sex lives, even though Kikyo was married. She could not see Kikyo even kissing Naraku, so she did not think that her sister slept with him. And, yes, Midoriko went out sometimes, but she never brought anyone home and she never stayed out for the night, so Kaede did not see where sex would even fit into her schedule.

She did think that her sisters were into that whole "wait until marriage" thing anyway. That was the message that she got from them and her aunt, so it was very hard to imagine Kikyo having an adulterous relationship and sleeping with Sesshomaru. That was what made the whole thing seem pretty wrong.

Midoriko thought that Kaede was talking about some rather unusual things and she decided that she was going to get to the bottom of why that was. Kaede was never so random with her conversations. She might come out of the blue with one question or statement, but never a whole discussion on things such as this.

--------------

Kikyo sat on the sofa in the apartment that she shared with Naraku. She was listening to some music and drawing in her extra sketchpad. She had gone out and bought a new book because Sesshomaru was still hiding her other one from her in his apartment somewhere. He did not seem to understand that it was the only means of entertainment that she had when she was stuck in that apartment.

She did most of her drawing when she was in the apartment alone. At Sesshomaru's place, she did not need her sketchbook for the most part because she had him. He kept her attention most of the time and if she drew things at his apartment, it was not because she was bored, but she had the itch to draw.

Her activity was halted as she heard keys in the door. It seemed that she was about to be back to her irksome, bothersome routine. The vacation truly was over the moment that Naraku entered the apartment.

"Kikyo," he greeted her with a haunting smile.

"Hello, Naraku. How was your trip?" she asked as if she cared.

"It was very much to my liking," he answered and he was still smiling, which disturbed her.

"What did you do?" she inquired because of his expression. She thought that she might want some information on why his mood was so jolly, for him anyway. After all, it could spell trouble for her.

"I looked at some land that I've purchased."

"For what?" she inquired.

"You'll find out soon enough," he answered with an even more alarming smile.

"Tell me," she demanded to know.

"You'll find out soon."

"Tell me now," she practically snarled at him.

Naraku chuckled a bit as if he was terribly amused by her behavior. "If you must know, I'm going to have a beautiful house built for us in the countryside," he informed her.

"How? We can't afford that," she said.

"I'm taking care of everything."

"Well, I refused to move," she declared.

"You refuse?" he echoed as if he did not understand her words.

"That's right. I refuse," she repeated. She was not going anywhere now that she was back with her sisters and she had Sesshomaru in her life. She was not going anywhere and he was not going to force her.

"That's funny. Do you think that you can refuse me?" he asked.

"I just did and I will continue to do so. I'm not going anywhere."

"Kikyo, whatever happened to 'love, honor, and obey'?" he inquired with a smirk that seemed to be glued on his face.

Kikyo scoffed. She had already broken the first two, so why not the third one? She never really obeyed him anyway.

"You dare repeat those vows to me as if they meant anything to you?" she countered with a frown on her face.

"Of course they mean something to me. I love you," he stated with that wicked, evil smirk still in place as if he was making fun of her.

Perhaps in his sick, twisted mind he did believe that he loved her, she considered. But, that was moot because not only was his version of love not true to what the emotion was supposed to be, but also because she did not love him. She realized that if she loved anyone at all on the planet, it was Sesshomaru.

Kikyo was stunned by that realization. Was she really in love with an arrogant dog demon? She had been trying her best to deny it, especially while she was on vacation with him, but now having to deal with her irksome husband, she had to yield to the thought. She was in love with Sesshomaru.

Naraku continued on after his declaration of love. "I do honor you and I want you to obey me," he growled.

"I'm not your pet," she replied.

"You will be," he seemed to vow.

Kikyo wondered if that was the point to him having a house built in the countryside. Was it someplace far from civilization where he believed that he could break her in the privacy of their own home? Someplace where he assumed no one would hear her screaming? Someplace where no one would notice that she was missing? She would not put it passed him and she was pretty correct on all fronts.

The hanyou was planning to have a home built far away from any distractions and he was going to make her become what he wanted. He was going to spend all the time in the world it would take to make her the docile, little wife that she should be. He would show her that he was in charge of everything and he would become the center of her universe as he believed he should be. He had his plans in place and everything already, so she was coming with him whether she liked it or not. There would be no refusals.

--------------

Sesshomaru was a bit curious as to what was bothering his little sister. He knew something was bothering her because of the way that she kept looking at him. She was just staring at him when she thought that he was focusing on his book. He figured that she should have been paying much more attention to the television since there was a rebroadcast of the X-games.

"Rin, if something is the matter, tell me," the dog demon stated.

Rin bit her lip. She wanted so badly to demand to know what he thought he was doing with Kikyo. She knew that Kikyo was not the type of woman that she seemed to be, having an affair with her brother and everything. Kikyo was a good woman and she was kind. She would never do anything wrong, yet there she was sleeping with Sesshomaru while she was married to some other guy.

Now, Rin knew that her big brother was not the most good-natured person that she would ever run into. He was good to her, which tended to be all that mattered to her, but now he might be helping to bring down a good woman and she did not like that.

"Big brother," the preteen said in an unsure tone.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Why won't you tell me about your new girlfriend?" she decided to ask. She did not know what else to say without coming right out and asking if that was really Kikyo in his bed earlier.

"I don't want to be bothered about her later on."

"Oh. Why? You know I'm just going to tell Mommy and Daddy that you have a new girlfriend anyway," she pointed out.

"She's not my girlfriend," he said. It was pretty much the truth in his mind. Kikyo was not his girlfriend, but his mate. She just happened to be married to a bastard at the moment that he had to get her away from.

"No? But, she was in your bed."

"Just because a woman is in my bed that doesn't make her my girlfriend."

Rin's little brow furrowed at that information. Did her brother have a one-night stand with Kikyo? That was even worse because Kikyo really did not seem like that type of woman. It seemed like the more that she thought on the matter the more it bothered her because of the different scenarios that were coming up.

"Are you going to tell me anything about her then?" Rin inquired.

"Watch your program," he replied.

The little skater girl sighed. Was she going to have to tell her best friend that her big brother might have just had a one-night stand with Kikyo? Kaede would never believe it because she knew that Kaede thought the world of both of her sisters. But then again, Kaede might be more open to that idea now that they had basically proved that Kikyo was cheating on her husband.

Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut, Rin considered. They had agreed to never talk about it and she might as well keep that promise. It was just that, it really bothered her for some reason. It just seemed wrong and it did not seem like something a nice person that Kikyo might do. It also did not seem like something a proud, dignified, honorable person like her brother might do. It did not make any sense.

Rin turned to focus back on the television, even though her mind was not on the program. Sesshomaru noted the serious expression on her face and he could only wonder what was going through her mind. He figured whatever was on her mind had to do with the woman that she saw in his bed. She was more than likely just being her usual eager, curious self, but her expression was different from anyone that she had ever worn. She looked so determined and deep in thought, maybe a little worried and confused too. He did not know what to think of it.

--------------

Midoriko was suspicious of her little sister. Kaede had been acting strangely ever since she came in and Midoriko figured that it had something to do with Kikyo because Kaede kept bringing up the middle child.

The eldest sister could only wonder what might have happened with Kikyo to have Kaede asking all sorts of questions about their sister. She kept bringing up Kikyo's sketchbook, wondering if Kikyo had ever left the book somewhere or if she would ever leave it some place unattended. Midoriko continuously pointed out that Kikyo would never leave that sketchbook anywhere.

"Kaede," Midoriko said as she stood in the preteen's doorway. Kaede was about to go to bed; she was worn out thanks to the day.

"Yeah?" the twelve-year-old replied.

"I'm beginning to think that something is wrong."

"Why?"

"Aside for the fact that you're about to go to sleep at ten, even though you don't have school tomorrow?" Midoriko pointed out. She had a long list of peculiar things that her little sister had done that night, so she could go on if that one item was not enough.

"It feels later than ten," Kaede said because to her it certainly did feel later than ten.

"Tell me what's wrong. Did something happen with Kikyo?" the eldest sister asked with concern.

"No, nothing happened with Kikyo," Kaede denied a bit too vehemently.

"What happened with Kikyo?"

"Nothing!"

"Kaede, you know you can tell me anything. So, tell me what happened with Kikyo," Midoriko requested in a gentle tone.

"Nothing happened!" Kaede insisted.

"Something did happen, which is why you're being so difficult. What happened to our sister? If something is wrong, you need to tell me. Perhaps I can help," the eldest said in an understanding voice.

"You can't help," Kaede replied in a miserable tone. No one could help their sister. The damage was already done and could not be fixed. It was like a crumbled up piece of paper; the wrinkles would never come out.

"How do you know I can't help? Tell me what's wrong."

"It's nothing!" the preteen said forcefully and tears gathered in her eyes. She never had to lie like she was doing now. She told little lies of course; she was twelve for crying out loud. But, she never had to deal with something so big before.

"Kaede," Midoriko said the name impatiently. "What happened with Kikyo? What is wrong?" she practically demanded to know. Her voice was even and stern. She was not going to accept anything less than the truth now.

"I can't tell you," the younger sister muttered.

"You will tell me right now."

"I can't."

"Why? Did Kikyo tell you to keep something from me?" Midoriko asked.

"No, she doesn't know I know."

"Kikyo is keeping something from us is what you're saying?" the eldest sister inquired.

Kaede only made a noise. She was not going to give the secret away. She was not going to betray Kikyo, even if it was to Midoriko. She was not even supposed to know about it. Why the hell did they have to go snooping instead of just skating?

"Kaede," Midoriko said.

"I can't tell you," the child repeated.

Midoriko accepted that because of how convicted Kaede sounded. She did not think that she needed Kaede to spell it out anyway. She figured that she would sit down and review Kaede's behavior for the night and she would discover what the problem was.

----(Next day)

Kikyo strolled down the street. She was going to have lunch with her sisters. She did not look like she was in particularly good mood despite the fact that she was going to see them. It was because she had to deal with Naraku and his wicked smirk for all of last night and as much as she hated to admit it to herself, she was worried. She knew that he was not planning anything good for her in the move that he wanted to make and she hated to think what might be on his mind.

Sure, Kikyo could take care of herself, but she still worried. She also did not want things to ever come to the point where she might have to purify Naraku. She did not want to find out what her breaking point was or what evil he was capable of.

As Kikyo got to her sisters, she noticed that they did not look like they were in better moods. Kaede was staring at her feet and her cheeks were puffed out, which was a clear sign that she was upset. The youngest sister looked up and noticed Kikyo approaching. Midoriko turned to see Kikyo coming.

The eldest sister rose to her feet, pushing her chair back as if she was angry with the piece of plastic. Kaede flinched just from that. The little girl looked at Kikyo with sorrowful eyes.

"I'm sorry," the youngest sister apologized to Kikyo while the eldest greeted Kikyo with a sound slap on the cheek. Kikyo's eyes were wide with shock; the pain did not even register to her brain.

--------------

Next time: What the hell is Midoriko slapping Kikyo for? You probably can guess.


	12. Tragic

I don't own these characters.

12: Tragic

Kikyo's head snapped to the side as her elder sister's hand impacted her cheek. The middle child was more surprised than injured, but she could only wonder what she had done to earn that slap. The last time that Midoriko hit her in anger was when she got engaged to Naraku. What could she had done that was on that level?

"Sister," Kikyo said in her usual voice. It was just about all she could muster because she was so shocked.

"What is wrong with you?" Midoriko growled. "Go sit over there right now."

Kikyo did not argue and went to sit down at the table as if she was an obedient puppy. She stared at the table, wondering what it was that she had done to warrant the slap. Kaede started at the middle sister while the eldest sat down. Midoriko looked back from each younger sister with a furious expression on her face.

"Um…Sister, what did I do?" the middle child asked the eldest.

"Don't try to play innocent. It's much too late for that," Midoriko stated.

"What did I do?" Kikyo asked once again because she really did not know what she had done to upset her elder sister.

Midoriko only frowned. She was not sure what she wanted to say yet. She focused on Kikyo now, which Kaede was happy about. The preteen did not want to sit there and have both of her sisters angry with her, not that any of it was her fault. She was just caught in the middle as far as she was concerned.

"Sister," Kikyo said a third time.

"How could you do this? Do you know the example that you're setting for your little sister?" Midoriko demanded to know.

"Don't drag me into this," Kaede muttered.

"What did I do?" Kikyo inquired once again. Why could her sister not just tell her what she had done wrong so that she could correct the problem?

"You're having an affair with Sesshomaru," Midoriko said in accusing tone.

Kikyo appeared shocked by the news while Kaede looked at the ground. How Midoriko came to the right conclusion on the matter, neither of her younger sisters would ever figure out. All Kaede knew was that she had not said anything and Kikyo damn sure was not flaunting what she was doing.

Kaede could not believe when Midoriko had called her to ask her if that was what her problem was, which eventually turned into if Kikyo was having an affair with Sesshomaru. The preteen had not known what to do or what to say by that time. She had panicked, staggering through a lie that she never did finish, and that was all that the eldest needed in confirmation that she had come to the right conclusion. She had suspected something was going on between Kikyo and Sesshomaru, but she had always convinced herself that Kikyo would never do such a thing. It would seem that she had been wrong.

"Will you deny it?" Midoriko asked Kikyo.

"We both know that I will not deny the truth," Kikyo answered.

"I feel as if I don't know what you might do anymore," Midoriko huffed, her fury evident in her voice and in her eyes.

"Miko," Kikyo said, shortening her elder sister's name to the first and last syllables. It was a nickname that she had used since before she could remember. Her parents used to claim that was her first word; she doubted that.

"Don't call me that and try to soften me up. How could you do this?" Midoriko demanded to know.

Kikyo was not sure where to begin to answer that question. Part of her even dared to think that it was none of her big sister's business. She was an adult and she could do what she wanted to do. She knew that would not fly and if she was not forthcoming, she might lose her big sister like she had when she married Naraku. She did not want to go through that again.

"Are you not ashamed of yourself?" Midoriko inquired and that got a quick response from Kikyo that no one expected.

"No," Kikyo replied.

"What do you mean 'no'? You are a married woman," the eldest pointed out.

"I know I am." There was no way that she could forget. Well, she did seem to forget about half of the time that she was with her paramour. The other half, all she could think about was how her marriage prevented her from fully being with her lover.

"And yet you would do something so disgraceful?"

"It is not something that I can explain…" Kikyo trailed off.

"You will break the relationship off now."

"I will not," Kikyo said defiantly. There was no way in Hell that she was breaking up with Sesshomaru.

"What?" Midoriko inquired, her voice nearly rising because of her anger.

"I will not break things off with Sessho."

"Sessho?" Midoriko echoed in an upset tone. She could not believe that one actually left her younger sister's mouth. "You will not continue such depraved behavior. You will break things off with that demon now."

"I will not," Kikyo stated again.

"Does this mean you're going to get a divorce?" Kaede asked in a hopeful voice. She would rather not draw attention to herself, but she would feel so much better if first of all, Kikyo was away from Naraku and secondly, the affair would not seem so bad if she was going to get a divorce.

"Naraku would never agree to such a thing," Kikyo muttered. She knew that because she had almost approached the subject several times since she started seeing Sesshomaru. Naraku made it clear that he would never let her go. It seemed that he enjoyed tormenting her.

"Then you're just going to go on with this?" Midoriko demanded to know.

"It is my desire," the middle sister answered.

"How can you desire this lecherous thing?"

"I feel…strongly for Sessshomaru," Kikyo answered in a guarded tone.

Kaede would have been happy to know that if the situation were differently. It would have been cool for her sister to be dating her best friend's brother and for them to be in love. But, it was not so cool when they were having an affair and Kikyo was going to remain married to the bastard that she was tied to.

"You felt strongly for that hanyou scum too. If this is what you wish to do, fine. Do not call me should your filthy husband find out about this," Midoriko stated and she stood up to show that she was leaving.

"Sister, do not do this to me again," Kikyo pled.

"You never listen to me," Midoriko said.

"It was once," Kikyo argued.

"And look at where that got you. You're married to a disgusting wretch on a good day. Now, you complicate that matter by going off to have an affair with a full demon. You seem to enjoy setting yourself up for horrible situations and never want to be talked out of them. Fine, enjoy the new tragedy that you've merrily set up for yourself," Midoriko retorted.

"Sister," Kikyo protested.

"Kaede, will you come with me?" Midoriko inquired.

Kaede looked back and forth from each sister. She hated being in middle on the rare occasions that they fought. She did not want to have to choose sides because that was impossible.

"I'll see you at home later," Kaede replied.

Midoriko focused her gaze on the preteen as if trying to judge if she was actually with Kikyo on the matter. Kaede's chocolate eyes did not seem to be against her, but they did appear worried for Kikyo. She thought that Kaede had cause to worry. Their sister was doing it again, making a poor decision and standing by it as if she were some kind of fool. Kikyo was an intelligent creature, so why did she make such obvious mistakes?

"Fine," Midoriko answered and she walked off.

"She took this pretty hard," Kaede noted out loud. She had expected everything that happened, but it took a bit to get used to Midoriko's temper. She wished that Midoriko was not so quick to slap Kikyo.

"How did you find out?" Kikyo inquired.

"I don't know how Midoriko figured it out, but I found out through Rin," Kaede replied.

"Rin?"

"She saw you lying in his bed yesterday. We found your sketchbook in the apartment too," the twelve-year-old explained.

"Oh…" Kikyo stared down at the table. She now felt thoroughly ashamed of herself despite her claim of the contrary.

"You know, I don't agree with what you're doing."

"I didn't think you did."

"But, if you do feel strongly for Sesshomaru, I can understand it. I mean, I know that Naraku sucks and he doesn't make you happy. If Sesshomaru does, then you should be with him. I mean, only a stupid person would stay with a person that makes them miserable when a person that makes them happy is right there, so I can understand why you're doing this. It's just that you didn't do this the right way," Kaede said, sounding wiser than her twelve years would suggest.

"I know. I would gladly get a divorce if Naraku would agree to it. I wouldn't have stayed with him this long if things were so simple," Kikyo admitted.

"So, what are you going to do? Go on like you have?"

"Until a better option presents itself, I suppose so."

"What if Naraku find out?" Kaede asked.

"I haven't thought that out yet," Kikyo confessed.

Kikyo never did consider what might happen if Naraku found out about what she was doing. He did not seem too interested in her lately, except for when he was telling her about the move that he had planned. There was something else on his mind and she was not sure what it was.

--------------

Naraku was looking to get revenge on Sesshomaru more than anything else. In the back of his mind, he did note a change in Kikyo's behavior. She had gone from passive aggressive to outwardly defiant when he talked about moving. The last time he moved her out of the city, she had not objected as much. It was clear that she did not want to do it, but she had not said as much. So, he was wondering what was bringing on the change in her and he was going to find out after he got things going with his revenge on Sesshomaru.

He went into the dog demon's office when Sesshomaru had gone away. He was not sure how long the nobleman was going to be out, but he did not require that much time to such up what he wanted to do. He went over to the computer and smirked when he noticed that Sesshomaru had left the machine on.

"He makes it so easy," Naraku commented to the air as he pulled out a portable hard drive from his pocket. He hooked it up to Sesshomaru's computer and was done in less than a minute with what he wanted to do.

The half-demon left the office with a wicked smirk on his face. It was about time for that mutt to learn his place in Naraku's opinion. And now, it was time for to learn what was going on with his dear little wife and why she had suddenly changed so much.

Naraku suspected that it would be much harder for him to find out what was going on with Kikyo than it was to get his revenge on Sesshomaru. After all, everyone that knew Kikyo did not like him enough to talk to him about her. He could not even pretend that he was trying to do something nice for her because they would only grow suspicious of him. He was not sure how to approach the situation. He would think on it, though.

--------------

Sesshomaru returned to his office and immediately smell that Naraku had been there. He frowned and followed the scent trail to try to develop an idea of what the hanyou asshole was doing in his office. He noted that the scent lingered by his computer and then went back to the outside. It seemed that Naraku just wanted him to kill him, the full demon thought.

The platinum-haired male checked everything on his computer and things seemed to be fine. He searched through his desk to be sure that the walking-dead hanyou had not stolen anything. When he was certain that everything in his office was still in order, he went in search for the man that seemed to want to die.

Sesshomaru found Naraku in his office on the phone. The half-breed ignored the furious demon at his door, which was not a wise decision. Sesshomaru threw out his hand and his energy whip went straight through the phone like lava through cardboard. Naraku turned to full demon now that he had no other distractions.

"Is there something that I can do for you?" Naraku inquired in an impatient tone.

"You were in my office," Sesshomaru stated.

"I was," the half-demon confirmed.

"For what?" the golden-eyed male growled. He doubted that Naraku had any idea how badly he just wanted to the hanyou to not be breathing anymore. It would solve both private and business issues for him if the damned crimson-eyed annoyance would just die.

"I thought that I might have left some notes in there from when we worked together," Naraku lied smoothly.

"From so long ago?" Sesshomaru said in a skeptical tone.

"I thought it was worth the look."

"And why would you think something so foolish?"

"I had already looked in the obvious places," Naraku answered.

"Listen careful, fool. You might think that I won't destroy you for whatever reasons, but you're quite wrong. Stay out of my office and do not touch anything of mines ever again, lest we clash. So, unless you're as stupid as you look, you'll leave my office alone," Sesshomaru informed the hanyou.

Naraku frowned at the threat. He really wanted to put that blasted dog in his place, but he supposed that it was all in due time. He watched Sesshomaru exit the room as if he was the ending of a hurricane. Oh, yes, he was going to put that dog right where he belonged.

Sesshomaru went back to his office and checked it again. He knew that irksome half-breed was lying to him, but he could not guess what the hanyou had been in his office for. Nothing looked out of place and nothing appeared to be missing. He could not figure it out.

"I doubt he was looking for something that might prove I've been with Kikyo," Sesshomaru thought.

The nobleman was doubtful that Naraku had a clue that he even knew Kikyo. The hanyou seemed too stupid to figure that out. So, he did not know what Naraku might have been going in his office.

----(New day)

Kikyo had been trying her best to get into contact with her big sister, but as expected, Midoriko was not taking her calls. She knew better than to leave a voice message because Midoriko would only delete those. It seemed that she was being cut off again and she could not really do anything about it.

Before when she had angered her elder sister with her actions, she had been able to call her aunt and pled her case to her aunt, but she could not do that now. It was not like she could tell her aunt that she was having an affair. The woman would surely side with Midoriko as soon as she found out about that. Kikyo was on her own with her current issues and she doubted that she was going to get through to her big sister, no matter how hard she tried.

Kaede had been trying to plead with Midoriko, going so far as to say the older woman was acting childish. The eldest did not seem to like that much and told Kaede that if she wanted to side with Kikyo, she might as well go live with her too. Kaede backed up off of the argument after that one. She was neutral from then on out.

The sisters were not the only ones busy with a crisis and issues. Naraku was now spending his time trying to find out if what the reason was behind his wife's new attitude. He considered that she might have gone out and gotten a job, but he could not find any evidence for that. Well, he thought the easiest thing to do to figure out what was going on was to get a copy of her cell phone records. It was the only thing that he could think of to link her to anything.

It was not hard to get what he needed and he looked through the records. He decided to call the numbers from a payphone to see if they would lead to anything. A few of the numbers did support that she was looking for a job, but she was not employed. They were hospitals and things such as that. He then got to Midoriko's number; she had not picked up, but he did hear her voicemail message.

He frowned as he listened to her voicemail. He hated her and just the sound of her voice ignited a flame in him that burned with loathing. He could not wait to see her face when he finally broke her little sister. He bet that she had something to do with Kikyo acting so strangely.

The next number changed his opinion, though. It was a frequently used number and when he dialed, he once again got the voicemail. He recognized that voice too. It was the low voice of the biggest bastard that he had ever met. Why was Kikyo calling that mongrel?

He dared consider could his little innocent maiden actually be cheating on him with that mutt? Well, why else would she call him at least once a day? Oh, that mutt! It was one thing to try to make an ass out of him at work, but to have touched his property was another thing altogether. Now, he was going to have to do worse to the mongrel and he was also going to have to do something about Kikyo.

But, before he did not anything about his adulterous wife, he would deal with the demon that ruined her. He was going to make Sesshomaru's life a living hell somehow, both his home and business life. He would show that mutt to not mess with him.

Sesshomaru also had a problem of his own. It seemed that something happened at work that the boss wanted to talk to him about as soon as possible, which meant the was staying after hours. He could not figure out what new issues that crazy old man might have, but he figured that he would find out when he met up with him.

"Still no manners, I see," Totosai commented as Sesshomaru entered his office without knocking, as usual.

"You're holding me up. Tell me why I'm here," Sesshomaru practically commanded.

"You just want me to be blunt with you?" the bug-eyed old man inquired.

"If it is the most efficient way to inform me why you're wasting my time," the dog demon answered.

"Okay, a worm was found in our computer systems. It was transferring money to an overseas account," Totosai said. "We managed to catch it and trace it before too much got away. You won't believe who we traced it to."

Sesshomaru did not respond. He did not see any reason to because he did not think that the old coot was done yet. He also did not play guessing games, so he would wait for Totosai to stop playing around and just tell him what the problem was.

"We traced it back to you, imagine that," Totosai said.

"Back to me?" Sesshomaru echoed in a slightly puzzled tone.

"Weird, eh? Right back to your computer."

"And you think I did it?"

"Whoa, you're getting ahead of the game, Sesshomaru. I didn't say all of that. I said we traced it back to your computer. Now, I've known you pretty much all of your life, so I know you wouldn't do anything like that, so that's why I'm not going to bother with accusing you," Totosai informed the dog demon.

Sesshomaru's expression did not change. He did not utter a thanks. All he did was consider the whole thing a waste of his time if he was not being accused of anything and Totosai had not informed him why the thing was traced back to his computer.

"Then what are you doing?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"I guess warning you. I figure someone set you up, but considering how everyone here hates you, it could be just about anyone," Totosai commented.

"Well, I'll keep that in mind."

"Yeah. Oh, one more thing, Sesshomaru."

"What?" the dog demon asked impatiently.

"This thing might get around, so don't be surprised if that daddy of yours finds out."

Sesshomaru did not say anything as he turned to leave the office. He did not care if his father found out about him doing something that he had not done. His main concern was finding out who had set him up and then making that person pay dearly.

The dog demon had a good idea who would pull such an underhanded stunt instead of facing him directly. After all, most other idiots around the office just ignored him if they disliked him, but only one grimy moron seemed to go out of his way to be irksome. Also, he had a few confrontations with people in his office and, yes, they were foolish and bothersome, but at least they were brave enough to face him.

He would deal with that bastard the second that he could. At the moment, he just wanted to go home and forget all about things. He considered calling Kikyo because he had not heard from her in the past few days. She had better be safe or he was not going to hesitate in decapitating a certain hanyou when he saw him in the morning. As he headed home, his cell phone went off. He looked at the number, hoping that it was Kikyo, but it was not. It was his home number. He answered, thinking that Rin might be calling him.

"Yes," Sesshomaru answered the call.

"Come home," a deep voice commanded the dog demon.

"Yes, Father," Sesshomaru said and he disconnected the call while turning the car around. He guessed that it was time to get a lecture on the embezzling issue, even though he had not done it.

--------------

Sesshomaru marched into his family's mansion and went right to the lounge where his father was with his stepmother. He stood before them and eyed them for a moment to understand how much time he was going to have to waste with them. There was something wrong with their gazes in his opinion. He had a feeling that he was in for something that he would not be able to defend himself from, which was new.

"Have a seat, Sesshomaru," his father commanded.

"I'd rather stand," the younger demon replied.

"Have it your way, as you seem to be doing lately. Do you have any idea why you're here?" his father inquired.

"Enlighten me," Sesshomaru answered. He knew better than to guess why he was summoned; it was a parental trick to see if he had done something that they did not know about and he thought that he was being busted on. It still worked on Rin, but he and Inuyasha were very hip to it.

"All right. Does the name Kikyo mean anything to you?" his father asked.

Sesshomaru went rigid. He really had not been expecting that question, but it would explain the look on their eyes. Well, it would explain the look if they knew enough about Kikyo and his relationship with her. He was now glad that he had not guessed.

--------------

Next time: the word seems to be spreading, what is Sesshomaru about to go through?


	13. Ashes to ashes

I don't own these characters.

13: Ashes to ashes

Sesshomaru stood before his father and stepmother like a solider at attention. His stoic mask had slipped enough for his father to notice after his father asked him a very important question. The younger demon knew that he had to weigh his words carefully before he answered, but he was not sure if he was going to have the time to be as cautious as he would have liked.

"Your silence is not an answer and it is not acceptable," the older demon stated. "Now, what does the name Kikyo mean to you?"

"Why do you ask?" Sesshomaru countered.

"I'm sure you can guess why."

"I'm sure I can't."

"You're having an affair with a married woman. Would you like me to walk you around the issue?" his father inquired.

"It is unnecessary," Sesshomaru replied.

"If it's unnecessary then why are you carrying on in such a distasteful fashion?"

Sesshomaru was silent. He considered telling his father that what he did in his life was his own business and try to end the argument there, but that was not true. He was a representative of their family and whatever he did reflected back onto the family. So, whatever he did was their family business when it might reflect poorly on them. It was not usually an issue unless he grew impatient with something and then let his frustration get away from him.

"Sesshomaru, you must know by now that standing there saying nothing is not going to help," his father informed him.

"I don't know what to tell you, then. I am not carrying on distastefully as you put it," Sesshomaru replied.

"The woman is married."

"To someone lower than a worm's stomach. If he were thrown in mud, he would leave a streak in it as he exited," the younger demon argued.

"That does not make her any less married," his father pointed out.

"No one knows," Sesshomaru decided to argue.

"Of course someone knows. After all, we know," his father said while motioning between himself and his silent wife.

Sesshomaru conceded that. Someone had to tell his parents. He wondered who. He was leaning toward Rin since she had seen Kikyo in his bed and she had claimed that Kikyo looked familiar. Did his little sister really know Kikyo? He would find out.

"You will end this affair," his father ordered him.

"I will do no such thing," Sesshomaru replied defiantly.

The older dog demon frowned and growled. He was about to tear into his eldest son verbally, but Izayoi spoke up first. She figured that they would not get anywhere with the two proud demons barking at each other now that her husband's alpha status was being challenged by his son deciding to not comply with an order.

"Sesshomaru, think of the woman you're involved with. You're only doing her harm by interfering in her marriage," Izayoi said.

"Her husband is doing her harm," Sesshomaru stated.

"He is the man that she chose to marry. It was her choice," Izayoi said.

"That doesn't excuse him for hurting her."

"Listen, Sesshomaru," his father spoke up now. He was not about to watch Izayoi try to get some form of sympathy or understanding out of his eldest son when he was certain none of that existed in the boy's stoic being. He was too much like his birth mother.

"I have been listening," Sesshomaru replied.

"You will end this affair or I'll simply cut you off from everything. I will not have this family involved in such a tasteless scandal," his father stated.

The elder dog demon thought that he had his arrogant son. To Sesshomaru, his inheritance was everything. He was the heir to a vast legacy that he was completely proud of. There was no way that he would throw that all away for a little human female that he could not even have since she was married.

Sesshomaru stood there. His expression did not change as he milled over the new information. Was Kikyo worth more than his birthright to him? In the past, he would have thought himself a fool for even weighing something against his birthright, but after sending so much time with her, he was certain that she was the one thing that might actually come before his birthright to him.

The young demon doubted that his father meant that threat anyway. Come on, was he going to leave everything in the hands of Inuyasha? That thought was laughable since the empty-headed hanyou probably could not find his own ass with both hands and a map. No one in his right mind would leave everything to Inuyasha, Sesshomaru was certain of that. All right, he would call his father's bluff on the issue.

"Fine. Severe our ties," Sesshomaru declared in his usual tone.

Both of his parents were surprised by that answer and it showed very clearly on their faces. He did not care to stick around to witness anymore of their reactions, so he turned to leave. As he began to walk away, his father regained his voice.

"I'm not joking, Sesshomaru," his father informed him.

"We'll see," Sesshomaru commented.

Sesshomaru walked out and did not look back. He would wait to see what his father had planned, but he was not going to give up Kikyo. She was his, even if she was married. It was not something to be argued.

The dog demon did wonder who it was that informed his parents of Kikyo. The only guess that he had was Rin, so he would find out if it was her. He decided to call her and find out where she was.

"Hey, big brother!" Rin chirped as she answered the phone. She loved it when one of her brothers called her instead of the other way around.

"Where are you now, Rin?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"With my friends. I am kicking butt in go-carts," she answered.

Sesshomaru would have chuckled if he was a lesser being. Her happiness was amusing, especially since she was always so energetic and sincere. He often wondered why she was like that; she was the only one in the family like that. Sure, Inuyasha was hyper, but it was not the same thing compared to Rin.

"Rin, there's something I want to talk to you about. Come by my house when you're done," Sesshomaru ordered.

"Yes, big brother," she agreed.

Rin had plans to go to Sesshomaru's place when everything was all said and done anyway since she and her friends had plans to go skating in the morning. She showed up at his apartment just in time for her curfew, which remained in place no matter where she stayed. Inuyasha was a bit flexible with it if she called, but Sesshomaru and their father were strict when it came to her being in at a certain time.

"Hey, big brother!" Rin greeted Sesshomaru as she entered the apartment.

"Did you eat, Rin?" he asked from his studio. He was working on a painting while trying not to let his father's threat bother him.

"I had pizza," she answered as she strolled to the back of the apartment to see what he was working on.

"Rin, I need to talk to you about something."

"What?" she asked curiously.

"Remember when you saw a woman in my bed that you said you thought you knew?" he inquired.

Rin swallowed hard. She had been trying her best to forget about all of that. She figured that if she thought about it, she might accidentally tell what she knew and they had the pact to not tell.

"Yeah," she answered hesitantly.

"Did you tell anyone about her?" he asked.

Rin swallowed hard again. She tried to remain calm, but it was rather difficult. How did her big brother know that she had told? It was supposed to be a secret.

"Who did you tell Rin?" Sesshomaru inquired since he knew the answer to his previous question. He felt like he knew the answer to that question too.

"I only told Kaede! Well, Kaede, Kohaku, and Shippo, but we all promised not to tell anyone!" Rin cracked like an egg. She thought that he already knew and she was well aware to never lie to him if he knew the truth.

"You told you friends?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered.

"You didn't tell Father?"

"No," she answered. Why would she tell their father something like that? She would get her big brother into so much trouble and she was never looking to do that…well, with Sesshomaru anyway. Inuyasha was another story, but even with him, she was never looking to get him into serious trouble. What Sesshomaru was doing would go beyond serious trouble and she knew that, so she had kept her mouth shut.

"Then how did he know?" Sesshomaru wondered out loud.

"Father knows about you and Kikyo!" Rin asked in panic.

"It's none of your concern. Wait, how did you know her name was Kikyo?"

"That's Kaede's big sister," Rin answered.

The world could not possibly be that small, Sesshomaru thought. But, then he remembered Kikyo looking at the picture that he had of Rin and her best friend. He had assumed that she was just looking at his sister, but perhaps she was looking at more. He wondered why she did not mention knowing his sister, not that it had a chance to come up in a conversation.

"Wait, you said you told Kaede?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Yes, but it's okay because we all promised not to tell," Rin replied.

The dog demon was not too sure if he could trust Rin's friends, but he believed her. He doubted that they were the ones that spilled the beans anyway. They did not have anything to gain from it, unless of course they told someone who told someone and so on and so forth. He was aware that Kohaku was the brother of Inuyasha's friend, so he could have brought the subject up, but did Kohaku know Kikyo to even want to say anything?

"Your friends, they know Kikyo too?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"Yes, she's very nice. She always buys us things if we go somewhere with her. She also used to ride the train with us all of the time to show us how to get places. She always wanted to make sure that we made it to where we had go," Rin answered.

"So, you all like her then?" he asked. He doubted that they would slander her name if they liked her.

"Yes, she's very nice," she repeated. "Big brother…why are you doing this?"

"What?" he inquired.

"Why are you dating Kikyo? You do know she's married, right? I mean, Kaede says that her husband is mean and it's only a matter of time before Kikyo turns him into a pile of dust, but still, that doesn't make this right. Right?"

"Rin, it's a complicated issue."

"Is she going to get a divorce? Are you going to marry her then?" the preteen inquired.

"Rin, it's a complicated issue," he repeated.

Rin only rubbed the top of head. She decided not to question things because she knew better than to pry into her big brother's business. She actually hoped that Kikyo would get a divorce and then marry her big brother. It would be nice to have someone like Kikyo in her family. Plus, she would be related to Kaede if that happened. She hoped everything worked out.

Sesshomaru still had the mystery of who could have possibly told his parents about Kikyo. Rin and her friends seemed to like Kikyo too much to share information that might do her some kind of harm. So, who was there that might know and tell his father?

--------------

Naraku was setting up for teaching Kikyo a lesson as to never betray him. He had already put things in motion to make that mutt's life hell by making a little phone call to the bastard's father and telling him a few things about Sesshomaru's personal life. He knew from gossip around the office that making that call would do a lot of damage because Sesshomaru's father apparently did not take any mess from anyone, offspring included.

Now, he was going to train his wife properly and then leave her with nothing to force her to come crawling to him on her hands and knees because he would be the only thing that she had left. He was going to take everything that she held dear. He was going to make her see that he was the only thing that she had left in the world. And the first thing that he was going to take from her was her family.

Kikyo did not seem to notice Naraku scheming against her. It was more than likely because he was always plotting against her, so there was no real change in his behavior. He also did not let onto the fact that he knew who she was talking to on her phone most of the time or who she was going out with when she left the apartment and did not come back in until late at night.

----(New day)

The raven-haired woman made her way to Sesshomaru's apartment as she did very often. She even had a key by now. She entered with groceries because she was going to make dinner for them. She found him in his studio. She embraced him from behind.

"How was your day, Sessho?" Kikyo inquired while kissing his cheek.

"The same as always," the dog demon replied while turning around to give her a proper kiss.

Sesshomaru pulled Kikyo down into his lap and kissed her deeply. She returned the passionate embrace while wrapping her arms around his neck. His hands worked their way to her thighs.

"Are you staying for the weekend?" he inquired when the kiss was done.

"Would you like me to stay for the weekend?" she countered, even though she knew the answer to that.

Sesshomaru would like nothing more than for her to be able to stay the weekend. He knew that fool Naraku had plans to leave town again for whatever reasons; Kikyo had been the one that informed him of that. She was not sure what her husband was leaving town for again and she really did not care. She was glad for the excuse to stay the weekend with Sesshomaru.

"You're going to stay the weekend," the platinum-haired male pretended to order her.

"We'll see. I'm going to fix us dinner, all right?"

"Human food," he groaned.

Kikyo smiled a bit. She believed that he was complaining just to complain and to maintain his image. She crawled off of his lap, much to his dismay, and exited the room. He turned his attention back to his work. He had to whole weekend to focus on her, but now only had a limited amount of time to devote his painting.

He considered telling her about what happened with his father last week. He did not see how it was any of her concern, so he decided against telling her. The fact that he was cut off from his family for the moment because he was dating her was not something that he felt he should burden her with. She had her own problems, after all.

She actually had not told him that her sisters knew about them. She did not see how that was any of his concern. It was her problem and she was looking to deal with it on her own. When he thought of her having problems, he just considered how she had to deal with Naraku on the daily basis.

They had a civil dinner as usual. They discussed going to out tomorrow. They were not sure where to go, though. They had gone through most of the museums that interested them and the same could be said of theatrical productions. There were no concerts that either could think of that they would like to see. They supposed that they would just figure it out tomorrow rather than allowing it to weigh on them that night.

They retired for the night after listening to some music and doing some sketching. They spent that night forgetting that they had angered so many people with their relationship. The only thing that mattered to them was each other.

----(New day)

Naraku sat at his desk at work, but he was doing something not at all work-related. He had a couple of manila envelopes on his desk. He opened one and pulled out the photographs that were inside. There were quite a few photos, but he should have guessed as much since they spanned a weekend.

"Not much here," he muttered to himself as he went through the first few. He then stopped and he looked incredulous. He flipped the photo to look at it from every angle that he could. "He can make her do that?" he mumbled in disbelief.

That one shocking picture was not the end of the tale. He had expected some racy photos, but not quite so many. He felt his fury rise, but he kept it all in check. He would get his revenge, so there was no need to get angry, he reminded himself. He just had to set the wheels in motion, even though he had already done that in a way. It was amazing what one phone call could do. Now, he was going to see what some unidentified mail could do.

He separated the pictures between the ones that he felt served his purposes and the ones that did nothing at all. Once he had two piles and no more pictures, he grabbed the pile that he knew would cause an uproar and put them into another manila envelope. He sealed that envelope and put it off to the side.

The hanyou then turned his attention the other full envelope and opened it. He flipped through those and nodded. Those should do nicely. He went into his desk drawer and pulled out some other photos. He pulled out a couple of pictures from there and tossed them into the full manila envelope. It was time for the next part of his plan.

He wished that he could see the expressions that would be on the faces of the people that he hated the most, but he supposed that one could not have everything. At least in the end he would get everything that he believed he deserved and those fools would get what they deserved. That was the important thing.

----(New day)

Kaede trotted into her home while flipping through the mail. She loved picking up the mail, mostly because she liked hoping for mail for her. She rarely got mail, but it was great to hope. She saw that there was just stuff for Midoriko, as usual. And then she came to a manila envelope. Oh, it was addressed to both her and Midoriko.

"Cool," Kaede practically cooed.

She entered the apartment and hollered for her sister. Midoriko sighed and scolded Kaede for acting like she was raised in a barn. She did go to see what all the noise was about, though.

"Look, we got mail!" Kaede grinned.

"We get mail everyday," Midoriko pointed out.

"No, it's addressed to both of us. See," Kaede said as she showed her big sister the names on the envelope.

"Oh."

"Can I open it?" Kaede pled.

"Feel free," Midoriko replied.

Kaede grinned again; it seemed like such an adult thing to get mail. She put the rest of the mail down and opened up the envelope. She yanked out the contents and they both looked to see what they got. Kaede yelped while Midoriko quickly covered her baby sister's eyes and took the items from her.

They had been sent photographs, but not any regular photographs. They were pornographic from what she could tell from the top picture and to make it even worse, the pictures involved their sister. Midoriko could hardly believe her eyes.

"Kaede, go start your homework," Midoriko ordered in a calm tone.

The preteen nodded and did not argue. She understood the reason for the command and she did not want to see any other pictures either. She trotted off to her bedroom while Midoriko steeled herself to flip through the rest of the photos.

Midoriko probably could not scowl any deeper than she was doing as she went through the pictures, each more disturbing than the last, even though the first one had been the worst. She was already guessing the sick bastard that dared to send her such material and address it to both her and her baby sister, but she considered that there might be another sick bastard that might have done it.

Her first guess was that hanyou scum that her sister was married to. She was willing to bet that he would do something so distasteful and disgusting. But, if it was him, then that meant he knew about Kikyo and that dog demon, which would mean that Kikyo was probably in danger. No one with demon blood was going to stand idly by while his wife did such lewd acts with another demon. And knowing Naraku, he would go above and beyond stupid to get back at Kikyo and Sesshomaru for what they were doing.

Her next guess was the dog demon himself. She did not know much about Sesshomaru, but she did not have the highest opinion of demons. Maybe he was just as much a bastard as Naraku was and the package was his way of being an asshole. As if he was saying, "Look at what I can make your sister do. Your sister enjoys being my whore."

Midoriko was not sure what she should do. She was so infuriated with her sister for putting herself in such a spot. She wanted to leave her sister to the grave that she had dug herself in, but there was chance that Kikyo was in danger if Naraku knew about the affair. There was also the chance that Kikyo was being used if Sesshomaru was behind sending those inappropriate photos.

The eldest sister then figured that Kikyo should be able to take care of herself. She was the one that got herself in that mess, so she should be the one to get herself out. If she wanted to be some demon's whore, then that was on her, Midoriko decided. With that out of the way, she went to the kitchen and burned the pictures on the stove.

--------------

Seesshomaru went to his car after work, looking to go home. He noticed a manila envelope pinned to his windshield with the wiper, like a traffic ticket. He pulled the thing off of his car and he recognized the scent on it. He frowned, but took the envelope with him into the car. He threw it in the back seat and took off toward him home.

The dog demon almost forgot about the envelope by the time he made it to his apartment. He happened to glance at it as he was getting out, so he grabbed the envelope and went upstairs. He sighed and tossed the package onto the kitchen counter. He poured himself a glass of wine to help ease away the annoyance of the day.

He was feeling the backlash of the worm that had been found on his computer that had been stealing company money. He believed that he knew who set him up, but the coward had been dodging him since the incident occurred. He hoped that the fool did not think that just avoiding him would do any good. While he might not be able to confront the moronic bastard face to face at the moment, he could gather evidence to show his innocence and he was doing that. He still had plans to tear the fool's intestines out for playing games with him and trying to taint his name.

Speaking of games, he wondered what the hell the envelope was about. He walked over to the packet and picked it up. He placed his glass of wine down and opened the package. He pulled out the contents and noticed that there was a note attached to what appeared to be a group of photos. The note begged the question, "Do you think you're the first person to catch her eye?"

The platinum-haired male frowned at the question. He then turned his attention to the pictures. The first few pictures were small, album-sized photos and they caused him to growl. The first one was of Kikyo sitting with his little brother, Inuyasha. She was smiling at that simpleton. The next picture was not much better; she was petting Inuyasha's ears while he was pouting.

The next set of pictures were different. It seemed that the first set of pictures were taken by a friend, but the next set seemed professional. They were taken at a distance and they also seemed more recent than the other set. They showed Inuyasha with a raven-haired female that looked very much like Kikyo. Sesshomaru became so enraged that he crumbled the photos in his hands.

"That bitch is dead," Sesshomaru quietly decided. No one made a fool out of him as she had. And here it was he had been ready to give her everything. He had been willing to lose everything just for her. Well, he would correct his mistake and teach her not to fool with him.

--------------

Next time: things just get worse.


	14. Things fall apart

I don't own these characters.

14: Things fall apart

Sesshomaru cracked knuckles as he strolled through the office. He went right to Naraku's office, only to find the hanyou was not there, again. When he caught to that slimy bastard he was going to tear into him, but for the moment, he had other things on his mind.

The dog demon went to his office and thought about how he was going to destroy Kikyo. He figured that Naraku sending him those photos of Kikyo with Inuyasha were a plot of some kind, but that did not stop his anger. He was not going to let that bitch take advantage of him.

He knew that Naraku has sent him the photos because his rotten scent was all over them. The hanyou had sent the pictures all right, especially when he learned that Sesshomaru was related to Inuyasha. He thought that was such a great coincidence, especially when he started making inquiries and learned that Sesshomaru hated Inuyasha with a passion. He remembered seeing Inuyasha in some of Kikyo's personal photos, which was where he got the album pictures from. The others were from a private investigator, as were the ones that went to Midoriko.

Sesshomaru fumed in his office and waited for noon or Naraku's return, whichever came first. Noon happened to be the one that came first. He quietly wondered where the hanyou was hiding out as he exited the office for his usual lunch date. It was not going to go as it usually did, though.

He moved like a ghost as he entered the museum, where he knew Kikyo was going to be waiting for him. She seemed to sense him, he noted, but she was not fast enough for him. As she turned, he was on her. He had his claws around her neck, which stunned her.

"Sessho…" Kikyo said in a quiet, shocked tone. She did not understand why she seemed to be being attacked.

"Do not call me that, woman. Now, do you think that you can make a fool of me?" he inquired in an emotionless tone.

"What do you mean?" she countered. It seemed that he was being serious, not that she expected anything less. She did wonder why he was attacking her, though.

"You're nothing more than a little whore, aren't you? You play hard to get and act so innocent, but you actually enjoy the attention. You want to be chased, don't you?" he asked.

"Sessho…" Kikyo choked out the name. She could not believe his words. She could not believe the pain that coursed through her as he said them.

"Don't," he growled and tightened his grip on her.

"Why are you doing this?" she begged to know. She was tempted to grab him and give him a shocking dose of spiritual power to get him off of her, but she did not want to hurt him. Yet.

"Do you think that you can toy with me, woman? Do you think I won't snap your neck for doing such foolishness?" he demanded to know.

"What have I done?" she asked.

"You'll continue to play so innocent? As if you have not been with other men, but you pretend that your vows mean so much?"

"What are you talking about?" she demanded to know with anger in her chocolate eyes. She could not believe that he was questioning her virtue and trying to insist that she was a whore.

"I am no one's fool," he growled.

Sesshomaru wanted to be tearing her head off of her shoulder, but something held him back. Something inside of him was telling him that he knew he could not harm her; she was his angel. But, he refused to listen to that voice.

She was no angel, he reminded himself. She was a whore. She was someone that lied to him. She was like that disgusting husband of hers. She was nothing more than a distrustful whore and he should treat her like a whore.

"How does your bastard husband treat you, woman? Does he treat you just like this? Do you enjoy it?" Sesshomaru inquired in a low tone.

"Stop acting like a beast," she stated.

"Watch whom you address, woman. Do you think I have any qualms with tearing your throat out with my claws?"

"Do you think I would allow that, demon?" she countered.

Sesshomaru snarled; he wanted so badly to yank all of the meat out of her neck with his bare hand. He had never been so infuriated in all of his life. He never despised anyone as thoroughly as he did with her. His grip tightened on her just as he thought about all of that and he thought about how much he actually had been beginning to feel for her.

And just as he believed that he was going to be able to snap her neck, he found that he could not. He stared down at her and some part of him still saw her as his angel. He growled in anger, showing off his fangs.

Kikyo did not show it in her face, but she was nervous. She was upset, of course, but she was nervous too. If Sesshomaru did do what he threatened, could she react quick enough to avoid having her throat ripped out? Could she muster up the strength to shock him with her spiritual energy? A part of her was telling her of course she could, but another part of her believed that she could not, would not hurt him, which she thought was ridiculous.

He was a demon threatening her life. Kikyo figured that she should be able to reduce him to a pile of dust as easily as she could breathe the air, but he was not any demon. He was the demon that made her feel safe, relaxed, and special when he held her. He was the demon that she allowed to touch her in almost any manner that he wished. He was the demon that she felt strongly for, but refused to consider that she loved him.

Sesshomaru could tell that she was anxious, maybe even frightened. He could smell the change in her and feel it in the pulse that was right underneath his fingers. Part of him dared feel like pure scum for what he was doing to her, for how he was making her feel, but then again, she deserved it. She was the one trying to toy with him, after all.

"If I ever see you again, woman, I will kill you," the dog demon vowed and then he turned to leave.

Sesshomaru walked away as if what had just happened was normal, even though he was conflicted on it. Part of him wanted nothing more than to render her limb from limb, but another part wanted to believe that none of it was true and that she was still his angel. In the end, all he could do was walk away because he knew that he would not come to a conclusion as to what to do with her.

Kikyo felt like her knees were too weak to support her as she watched Sesshomaru walk out of her life. She fell to the floor and felt something that she had not felt in a long time, she felt the urge to cry. She wanted to weep, to call after him, to beg him not to leave her, but she did not do any of that.

She steeled herself after a few moments. She was stronger than what she was showing, she reminded herself. She was stronger than that and then she could sense something was wrong. She touched her cheek. As it turned out, she did do one thing that she wanted to do. She was actually crying.

She had never cried over a guy before. No man had ever been worth her tears. He was different. He meant so much to her and now he had just walked out of her life while thinking the worst of her and she did not even know why. She almost wished that he had killed her just to avoid feeling the agony that she was currently in.

She tried to force herself to stop crying as she exited the museum. She did not know where she was going, but she knew that she had to get out of there. She wiped her eyes, but her tears continued to fall. She could not believe the pain that she was in from a man. She knew that she felt strongly for him, but she had not expected such excruciating pain with him leaving her.

Why had he said those things, she wondered. Why had he done those things? Why did he leave her? What happened? She just wished that she had some answers and she doubted that she could call him to get them, at least, not right now.

--------------

Sesshomaru felt conflicted. He was still wondering why he had not torn Kikyo apart, but he was pleased that he had not done that. He decided to put her out his head; she needed to just consider herself lucky that she was still alive, he figured. Now, he would focus on finding evidence that Naraku was the one that framed him with embezzling the agency's money. He supposed that he would also have to informed his father that the older demon was right in some way when he told Sesshomaru that he should just leave Kikyo be.

The dog demon knew that he was going to loathe having that conversation. His father was a smug man and would not just let things ago about how he was right. He would go on about it until Sesshomaru just want to rip the older demon's chest open. And it would not stop after one conversation. He knew that occasionally his father would just bring the subject up out of the blue for no reason, as if he only wanted to annoy Sesshomaru and prove that the younger demon was not as wise as he pretended to be.

No, Sesshomaru shook his head. He was not going to stand for that. He was not going to let that demon talk down to him as if he was some little pup that did not know anything. He supposed that to avoid all of the annoying banter that his father would throw at him, he might as well not tell the older demon what happened. His father would find out eventually no matter what, but he was not going to be the one to tell him.

Sesshomaru went back to work and wondered if that hanyou bastard was around. He sniffed around for him and caught the putrid scent of Naraku, but knew that it was an old smell. It was almost as if the half-breed had did not even go to work anymore, but other people claimed to see him around. It seemed that Sesshomaru was the only one that had not seen the half-demon.

The golden-eyed male did not care that Naraku was not around anymore. He would get his proof on the hanyou other ways. He just wanted to confront Naraku face to face because that was the kind of man he was.

--------------

Kikyo was sitting in a park. She did not want to go home and she did not know what to do. She finally managed to cease her tears, but that did not help much. She still felt like her insides had been through a shredder. She was staring at her cell phone.

She had been trying so hard to call her older sister. She really needed a shoulder, but Midoriko was not taking her calls still. Being ignored by her big sister was only killing her all the more. She needed something. She was not sure what she needed, but she was certain that her sisters could provide it.

The raven-haired female picked herself up from the bench and started toward the nearest bus or subway. She was going to her sisters, even though the still functioning rational part of her brain was swearing that she was making a mistake. She was not listening to that because she was in too much pain. She just wanted the ache to go away and she only knew one way to make that happen.

Kikyo took the train to her sisters' apartment. She dragged herself up to the apartment and knocked on the door, hoping that they would let her in. She could hear someone come to the door, but she guessed that it was Midoriko since the door did not open nor did the person inquire who was it.

"Big sister, please don't be this way anymore," Kikyo pled through the door.

"Go away," Midoriko ordered.

"Please," the middle sister begged.

"We don't want anything to do with you anymore. Since you know everything, solve your own problems."

"I don't know everything," Kikyo replied while leaning against the door for support.

"You pretend to. Go on your way."

"Big sister, please. I really would like to talk to you."

"Leave."

Kikyo let out a choked sob as she could hear her sister walking away from the door. "Sister!" she cried out, but she was ignored.

The usually strong woman felt so weak now. She felt so abandoned and she dropped to the floor. She cried there as if she was a little baby. She just wanted her sisters back to her right now. Was that too much to ask?

Kikyo wondered why things were going so wrong. What had she done? She had broken her wedding vows, a voice in her head pointed out. That was the problem. She had broken her word and she had had a distasteful affair with a demon. She was just getting what she deserved.

Once that thought entered her mind, Kikyo forced herself to stop crying. She did not have a reason to cry anymore in her opinion. It was all on her. She had brought everything on herself. All right, she conceded. She might as well go home now.

Midoriko watched her sister walk away through the peephole in the door. She had heard Kikyo crying and the big sister in her made her return to the door. She had been tempted to open it and talk to Kikyo, even though she was disgusted with her sister in so many ways, but she loved her sister and would like to ease the horrible pain that Kikyo had to be in. Before she got to opening the door though, the noise stopped and Kikyo was on the move.

Midoriko began to suspect that she had done the wrong thing. After all, her sister had been in the hallway bawling, her usual dignity and pride thrown to the wind, lost in so many tears. The last time that Kikyo had cried without physical pain being involved was when they lost their parents. Something completely terrible must have happened to Kikyo, but Midoriko let it go. Her sister needed the tough love.

She also let it go because Kikyo seemed to have her act together when she was leaving. She had stopped crying and she was walking strong when she left. It was possible that her little sister was going to go and fix whatever it was that tried to break her, which was good. Kikyo had put herself in her current mess, so she needed to get herself out of it.

--------------

Kikyo went to her apartment. She was stunned to find that Naraku was home. She scowled at him just for being there. She was not in the mood to deal with him, especially since he was smirking that deathly evil smirk of his.

"What, no greeting for your darling husband?" he inquired.

"I don't feel like dealing with you at the moment, so I suggest that you don't start with me," she warned him.

Naraku only chuckled at her. She was so fiery and he was going to thoroughly enjoy tearing that from her. He was going to love watching her crumble as everything that she ever had was gone.

"You should be a more loving wife, Kikyo, dearest," Naraku commented and he took a step toward her.

Kikyo stepped back. There was something different about her husband; she could almost feel it. She could practically see the evil flowing off of him. She stood her ground, though. She did not fear the man before her. She would never fear the man before her, but she was on guard.

"You seem rather cautious, my dear. What's wrong? Why do you back away? Is it because you want to leave now? Do you want to run away from me like you have been doing for the past couple of months? Do you want to run from me and go to him? Do you want to go to him so that he can fuck you again?" Naraku inquired without changing his tone at all.

Kikyo seemed taken aback by his questions. She looked rather offended by his words. It took her a moment to realize that he knew what she had been doing. He knew that whenever she left the apartment, she was going to meet Sesshomaru more than likely. She was not ashamed that he was aware of what she was doing, but she doubted that he was fond of the information and she expected him to do something rash.

"I would be careful of how I speak if I were you," Kikyo warned him.

"No, if you were me, you wouldn't be cheating on your spouse, now would you?" he inquired. He wanted her to squirm, but she was not complying. She was standing there as if nothing was wrong, except for the way that she had her fists balled, which only indicated that she might respond in a way that he did not want to. She might very well attack him.

"Is it that you wish for me to admit?" she asked since he seemed to be pressing the issue.

"I don't need you to admit anything. I have photographic proof of what you were doing. Perhaps I should go see your aunt and share the news with her."

"You wouldn't dare," Kikyo growled.

"Perhaps I already did," he offered with a frightening smile.

Kikyo frowned. She would not put it past the sick bastard that was her husband to go and show her aunt lewd photos of her behaving rather wantonly with Sesshomaru. That was provided that he had the evidence that he spoke of. There was always the great chance that he was bluffing.

"You did no such thing," she stated.

"How can you be so sure?" he asked.

She only frowned deeper. She could not be sure, especially considering how he behaved. He might have had pictures of her doing any number of things with Sesshomaru. She was not sure how her aunt would react, but she doubted that it would be good. Her aunt would more than likely cut her off, just like her own sisters. She would be completely alone in the world except for her damned husband.

"You don't have any photos," she called his bluff.

"Don't I? Why don't you call your sister and ask her about them," he suggested.

"My sister?" Kikyo echoed and then she realized that he must have shown the pictures to her sisters. That would explain Midoriko not even opening the door for her, why she had been turned away even when she was begging, and why her sister did not want anything to do with her anymore. He actually showed them photos of her with Sesshomaru.

"I made sure that the first one they would see was the worst because I figured that the bitch would turn the kid's head away once they caught sight of exactly what was going on. Should I describe the picture to you?" he inquired.

"No," she replied while making tighter fists. She was so angry right now that it did not even register to her mind that her nails were cutting into her palms and it was not even that she was furious with her husband. She was angry with herself for carrying on with that damn dog demon in such a way. After all, where had that gotten her? Nowhere, except branded as a whore by the golden-eyed prick.

"Are you sure? You look like you're having so much fun in the picture, though. I mean, the way you're riding him—" he started, but she cut him off.

"Shut up!" she ordered harshly, which let him know that he was really getting to her.

"What's the matter, Kikyo? Why don't you go run to him now? Why don't you go ride him?"

"Shut up," she said again, in a more menacing and low voice.

"And if I don't? What will you do? Are you going to leave to your lover's arms or are you going to turn into a pile of ashes as you always claim you'll do?" he asked. His wicked smirk still cemented on his face.

"The latter sounds appropriate," she replied. After all, that filth had taken her sisters from her. They were the most important people in her life. They were the most precious things in all the world to her and he stole them with sneaky pictures. Although she would admit that she was to blame for putting herself in that situation, but that did not give him the right to tear her away from her family.

"And what will you tell the police?" he inquired to mock her.

"Why should I have to tell them anything? All I need do is sweep you out of the door when I'm done. If anyone asks, you went on a business trip and never returned. It was not like we had a happy marriage anyway," she answered. It would seem that she had thought out his murder more than he would have imagined.

"I see and once I'm gone, you'll be with your lover?"

Kikyo glanced away for just a moment, but Naraku noticed. The look told him all that he needed to know. It would seem that his pictures and letter hit their mark. Sesshomaru had deserted Kikyo the moment that he thought that she was a whore. Stupid mutt, he thought.

"Is that the plan, Kikyo? You're to murder me and then be with him?" Naraku pressed only to be annoying now that he knew Sesshomaru left her. He bet that she would shatter right in front of him now and all he wanted to do was kick her while she was down like a cowering puppy.

"I'll destroy you and then have peace of mind if nothing else," she stated.

It was so tempting to just go grab him and never stop filling him with spiritual energy. She knew that if she hit him with enough of her power, she would be able to vacuum up his remains later and empty him out into any trashcan of her choosing, which was still a better burial than she believed he deserved. It was not likely that the police would ever be able to come up with any trace evidence to even think that there had been foul play.

"I doubt you'll ever have peace of mind again. After all, your sisters know that you're nothing more than a demon's whore and without them, what do you have, Kikyo? Hmm, just what do you have without your bitchy sisters?" he demanded to know.

Kikyo was dumbstruck and the expression on her face made it seem like she had just been shot with a shotgun. He was so right. What did she have without her sisters? She did not have anything without them. Life without them was meaningless. She was nothing more than a waste of air without people to care about her.

Naraku smirked wider when he saw the look in her chocolate eyes. Since the eyes were the windows to the soul, they gave Naraku a front row seat to watching her break. He witnessed the very essence of Kikyo crack and shatter in that instance as she realized that she nothing left in life. He had taken it all and he was not done yet. No, he was not done by far.

Naraku continued to watch in sick satisfaction as Kikyo's reaction steadily grew worse now that she knew that her sisters had abandoned her. She began trembling, shaking like a cornered mouse. Her jaw tightened in frustration to the point where it seemed like she would fracture her whole skull from the tension. Her eyes misted over, but she dared not cry in front of Naraku.

And now, the hanyou thought that he would spring the next part of his trap. He was, after all, looking to break Kikyo completely. Now, he had broken her, but she was not outright shattered as he wished her to be.

"Kikyo, I want a divorce," Naraku announced.

--------------

Next time: what is Naraku's plan with this move? How will Kikyo react to the sudden announcement?


	15. Crumbling

I don't own these characters.

15: Crumbling

Naraku had just informed Kikyo that he wanted a divorce. Considering all of the cards that he was holding, such a thing seemed like madness. After all, he was the one that never wanted to let her go and now he was demanding a divorce. It was a part of a master plan that he had in breaking Kikyo worse than car windows after an accident.

See, he had already taken her family from her and her lover. He was all that she had left, but he wanted her to even lose that. He wanted her to be all alone in the world because he believed that given time, she would come crawling back to him because he was the only person that would accept her.

Now, he knew that she would try to get back in her sisters' good graces, but he doubted that it would be humanly possible for her to do that. He considered that she might try to go back to Sesshomaru, but there was no way that mutt would take her back; not after seeing her with his half-brother. So, she would have to come back him. Why? Because humans were social animals that needed certain things and he would be the only one willing to provide her with those necessities.

Once she had to come to him, he believed that was when he would have the Kikyo that he wanted. She would be a submissive little doll for him, just like she should be in his opinion. She would be perfect after going through heartache and misery. So, he had to teach her how to be perfect by taking everything from her. And he meant everything.

"You want a divorce?" Kikyo echoed in a perplexed tone. And to think, she thought that she would have to kill him to get away from him.

"Yes, I want a divorce and based on most of the things I have on you, I'm pretty sure the terms will favor me," Naraku commented with the smirk that he had been wearing since she entered the apartment and he had started in on her.

"I see," she practically grunted.

"Yes."

Naraku chuckled. He imagined that he would get away with almost everything that they had in their marriage. She would be left penniless, jobless, and with no one to turn to. He figured that it would not take her too long to break and return to him.

Kikyo wondered if she should argue with him. She wanted a divorce and she really could care less than nothing about the terms. Hell, he could have whatever the hell he wanted as long as she would be free of him. She just did not want him to know that she was in favor of a divorce or he might change his mind.

"You think you're so clever, don't you?" Kikyo inquired.

"I believe I am. You're going to regret crossing me, dearest. You're going to regret cheating on me with that mutt," Naraku snarled.

"I see and you teach me a lesson by divorcing me?"

"That's only the start."

Kikyo did not care what he had planned after the divorce because she was getting away from him. She did not care what he had in mind because she was not going to let him get away with it. She was going to get away from him the moment that she had the chance.

Naraku wasted no time getting divorce papers drawn up. The terms were extremely one-sided. Kikyo would get nothing, no money, no property, nothing. She did not care. The only thing that she wanted was the pictures that Naraku had of her along with the negatives. She received those, even though she was almost certain that he had other copies and would undoubtedly use them if he got any other horrible ideas. But, she did not care. She was free.

The hanyou watched his former wife leave their home with only the clothes on her back and some clothes in a suitcase. She did not even have her sketchbook because it was still in Sesshomaru's possession. She did not care; at least she was free to go, even though she did not have anywhere to go.

She considered going to her aunt's house, but she decided against that. She did not want to find out that her aunt had seen the pictures that Naraku had. She could hardly believe the pictures. A part of her mind even asked her how she could do such things with Sesshomaru and she answered that she was so comfortable around the dog demon that she felt like she could do almost anything with him.

----(New day)

Sesshomaru sighed and rubbed his face. He was sitting at his desk and staring at his computer. He put his hand to his chin and scratched his chin with his index finger. He was somewhat surprised by the information that he had, but he was not so surprised.

"This bastard thinks he's so clever," the dog demon commented.

Sesshomaru sat back in his chair and just focused on his monitor. He had been going through his email, looking for some word from one of the many people that he had helping him clear his name from that embezzling nonsense. They were gathering things on a certain hanyou bastard and they were doing a damn good job, not that it was very hard. He printed out everything that was important and placed the papers into a folder.

He collected the folder and turned his computer off. He climbed to his feet and marched out of his office. He went to the boss' office, bursting in as he always did. The old man was not doing anything important, as always. Sesshomaru often wondered how the scatterbrained old man built such a vast and glorious company, especially considering what he had just learned.

"Sesshomaru, could you at least make some noise when you walk if you're not going to knock?" Totosai inquired while nearly jumping out of his skin when he noticed how close the dog demon was to his desk.

"I have some information that might mean something to you," Sesshomaru informed the bug-eyed coot and he tossed the folder onto Totosai'd desk.

"What's this?" the old man asked as he looked down at the plain, beige folder that was sitting lifelessly on the top of his onyx desk.

"Something that you need to see and you need to be more careful of what you hire to work here," the golden-eyed male commented.

Totosai only looked on curiously while Sesshomaru exited the office. The dog demon left the building, considering his work to be done for the moment. He did not know where he was going, but he knew that he did not want to be in the building anymore.

He had been noticeably more irritable lately and he found himself unable to put up with a lot of the things that happened at the office now. He barked on the secretary for almost no reason at all almost everyday until the woman just decided to stop talking to him. He wished that everyone else would follow her intelligent example.

He had not seen hide nor hair of Naraku, which he supposed was a good thing because he would have beheaded the hanyou with his bare claws without thinking twice on the matter because of how irked he was with just everyone else on the planet. Though there was something else that was lurking just underneath the dog demon's demeanor that he was not acknowledging.

The nobleman wandered by the museum of demon art. He stopped for a moment and glanced up at the building. He took a small breath, sniffling at the air, searching for some hint of _her_.

He still thought about Kikyo, even though it was almost a month ago where he threatened to kill her if he ever saw her again. He could not believe that he said such a thing to his angel. He could not believe that he still thought about her.

He did not enjoy thinking about the woman that he knew to be little more than a whore and a liar. She had pretended to be so chaste and innocent, but she was nothing but a bitch for half-breeds it seemed. She had a horrible hanyou husband and then he had to see her in those photos with his empty-headed brother.

He hated thinking about her with his brother more than her with her husband. It was not so much that he hated his brother more than he hated Naraku, no. There was no way for that to even be possible. He was not sure why he loathed the idea of Kikyo being with Inuyasha more than being with her husband, but he was guessing that it had something to do with the fact that his brother was closer to him.

He shook the thoughts away. He refused to think about her anymore. If she wanted to be a whore and be with his brother, that was their concern, not his. All he knew was that he was going to slay Kikyo without a thought because that was what she deserved. She was supposed to die for trying to toy with him.

--------------

Totosai looked through all of the papers that Sesshomaru left him. He noticed how thoroughly everything was. He was far from surprised by what Sesshomaru uncovered. He knew that as soon as he told the dog demon about discovering the worm on his computer that Sesshomaru would hunt down the person that tried to frame him, which Sesshomaru did.

He also knew that the nobleman would use as many resources as he could get his hands on to find out the truth, which Sesshomaru had. The dog demon sunk himself into finding evidence as to who framed him. It was just that he did not have anything else to do. He had thrown Kikyo away, his painting muse had abandoned him, and he was not on speaking terms with his father and stepmother. All he had was hunting for evidence and the occasions when his little sister popped up at his home.

Totosai called Naraku into his office. He had noticed the hanyou ducking in and out of the building and now he knew that the half-demon was trying to avoid an angry Sesshomaru, so he guessed that the hanyou was not as stupid as Sesshomaru seemed to think he was. But then again, Totosai considered that maybe if Naraku was not so stupid, he would have never crossed that crazy dog demon to begin with.

Naraku entered the office without knocking. He stood before Totosai, who put the folder away and eyed the hanyou. He decided that he was not going to say anything. He would just leave it all as a surprise for the half-breed.

"I was just wondering where you've been," Totosai commented to let the half-demon think that he had just been concerned for him.

"I've been here," Naraku replied.

"Really? I heard you've been in and out of the place," the old man said.

"A little. I was just looking for inspiration for my accounts," the half-breed explained.

Totosai nodded. "That's good to know. You're a hardworking guy," he said.

"I'm just doing my job."

"All right then. Carry on," Totosai dismissed the crimson-eyed hanyou.

Naraku eyed the old man for a moment as if he was suspicious, but he seemed to dismiss that. He reminded himself that Totosai was a crazy old coot, who probably did not even know what year it was, let alone anything relevant to the company. He might have felt sorry for the old codger if he had a heart to feel sympathy.

The hanyou stepped out of the office and went back to his office. He sat at his desk and made some phone calls. He was attempting to find out what was going on with his now ex-wife.

Naraku had lost track of Kikyo almost the day that she walked out of the apartment. He was not too worried about that because he was certain that he would find her again. He doubted that she could do much. He knew that she had not gotten into contact with her family; he had people keeping tabs on that. He knew that she did not have much, if any money because none of his people had spotted her at any of the hospitals or clinics in the city.

He entertained himself by picturing her having a hard time in the world. He actually smiled while imagining her sleeping on the street or under a bridge. He figured that if she was homeless then she would be back to him by the end of the month. He bet that such an experience would teach her a good lesson and then he could get on with his life.

He still had plans to move Kikyo to the house he had in the country. Once he had her there, he would not let her leave. He would make her the way that he wanted her to be, docile and submissive. He would make it her life to serve him and she would become his world. He continued to smile as he thought about all of the things that he was going to do to Kikyo once she came back to him.

--------------

Kikyo was not thinking about returning to Naraku ever. She was free of him and that was that. Sure, she did not have much money, or a place to stay, and she knew that she could not go to her family for any help, but that she was still free. She was on her own and that was a pleasing enough thought for the moment.

The raven-haired woman had set herself up in a small apartment with very cheap rent; it looked like the cheap place it was. She had some money and she was not sure how long that she was going to be unemployed, so she needed to stretch that money out for moment and that was why she had taken the dirty, small, cramped space.

She was tempted to run out and find a hospital to work at immediately, but she decided against that. She considered that Naraku might still be thinking of her in someway and check to see if she had work, which was what he had had been doing. He seemed hell bent on making sure that she had nothing in life that she wanted, so she was going to bide her time to see what his plan was. For the moment, any job would do for her as long as he did not know about it.

She took the first thing that came up, but always keeping an eye open for something better. She became a waitress at a nearby diner. It was not her ideal job of course, but she supposed that she could have done worse. She took to it with some zeal since she understood that a decent amount of money was going to depend on tips. Her only hope was that no one that she knew saw her, but it would seem that she was continuing to have a horrible string of bad luck. At least Naraku would never think to look for her there.

"The service in this place stinks," Inuyasha commented as he and Kagome sat down.

"Stop complaining. They serve good food," Kagome replied.

"Blah, blah, blah," was his retort.

"This is not happening," Kikyo thought as she caught sight of Inuyasha and her cousin. Of course, they would come in and sit at a table in her section. She decided to grin and bear it, without the grin part anyway.

"The food better be good," Inuyasha huffed as Kikyo walked over to the pair.

"Might I take your order?" Kikyo asked and the voice sounded very too familiar to the duo. They looked up to see who their waitress was and they could not believe their eyes.

"Kikyo!" they shouted incredulously.

"Yes," she replied with a sigh.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Inuyasha inquired while Kagome could only nod in agreement with that question.

"It's a long story," Kikyo sighed.

"No kidding," the hanyou muttered. He could not believe what he was seeing, even though he was continuing to look at it. Kikyo was dressed as a waitress. She was a woman who was a fucking doctor dressed as a waitress! Holy shit, his brain screamed.

"You need to tell us this long story," Kagome insisted.

"I can't really do that right now. I'm working, as you can see," Kikyo replied.

Inuyasha seemed to choke on his words as he tried to yell at her for being a waitress. He just did not know where to start yet. The cousins looked at the hanyou because they knew that he was going to scream as soon as he could wrap his head around what was going on. It seemed that he could not get his mind together enough and he just punched the table in anger.

"Kikyo, do you think that you could explain this just a little bit?" Kagome requested.

"Well, let's just say I've gotten divorced," Kikyo replied.

The hits just kept on coming. Inuyasha's jaw practically hit the table while Kagome just stared with huge brown eyes full of disbelief. They had sworn to the high heavens that Kikyo would be married to that demented bastard she was with until the end of time, but now she was lucky enough to be divorced and she was working as a waitress. That did not make any sense.

"Okay, so you're divorced, but that doesn't explain why you're working as a waitress," Kagome pointed out.

"I'm only doing it for the moment. I want to make sure that I won't be hearing from Naraku and then I'll move on with my life," Kikyo tried to assure her younger cousin.

Kagome seemed perplexed by that answer. "Does Midoriko know about this?" she inquired.

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and wondered why the hell Kagome would bother asking such an obvious question. Of course Midoriko did not know because if she did, she would have been at the diner breathing fire on Kikyo to make her get her pale ass in a hospital where she belonged. Like there was any excuse in the world that would make Midoriko be all right with her sister being a waitress when she was a fucking doctor!

"We are not on speaking terms at the moment," Kikyo admitted.

"No? Why?" Kagome asked. She was very stunned to hear such a thing considering how close her cousins were. She envied them a great deal of the time, wishing that she had sisters so that they could be like Midoriko, Kikyo, and Kaede.

"That is also a long and complicated tale that I do not wish to share," the older female replied.

"So, how long are you going to work here?" Kagome asked.

"Not long," Kikyo answered honestly. She was not going to keep any job long because she did not want to settle in case Naraku was looking for her. She was going to move around for a bit until she understood what it was he was trying to pull.

Kikyo was not as foolish as Naraku seemed to think she was. She knew that he had some scheme up his sleeve and that was why he divorced her. She was going to wait for him to strike and then she was going to take him down, get him out of her life forever. And then, maybe, she could find a nice little hospital to work at. She was not sure if her life would ever be as fulfilling as it was when she had Sesshomaru and her sisters, though.

Kikyo doubted that she would ever get her sisters back, not if they had seen those pictures. She was not sure what drove Sesshomaru off the deep end, but she doubted that he was coming back either. But then again, she was not too sure that she would want him back. She did feel strongly for him, but he had called her a whore and threatened to kill her. Hard to believe that he and Inuyasha were brothers, which she knew because she knew Rin.

"Are you two going to order or continue to look at me as if I've grown several heads since I walked over?" Kikyo asked.

"Kikyo, you know if you need help you can come to us and we'll help," Kagome said and Inuyasha nodded in agreement.

"I don't need any help," Kikyo answered in a rather clipped tone. She was not someone that _needed_ anyone. Okay, maybe on an occasion or two, she needed her sisters, but that was it. She did not need anyone else and she did not need help. She had things well in hand.

"Kikyo, you're a trained doctor working as a fucking waitress in a shitty diner. How the fuck don't you need help?" Inuyasha inquired with a raised eyebrow. She might as well be wearing a sign that read "help!" in his opinion.

"As elegant as ever, Inuyasha. I can't imagine why no one ever lets you make speeches," Kikyo remarked.

"Hey, don't try to fucking change the subject. This is some serious shit," Inuyasha pointed out.

"It is not so serious. I'm fine, you two. I know exactly what I'm doing. Just trust me," Kikyo ordered them.

"Fine, fine, fine. You know what you're doing," Kagome agreed.

Kikyo frowned. She knew what was going to happen as soon as Kagome left the diner. Her cousin was going to get on the phone with her big sister and that could go two ways. Midoriko could inform Kagome that no one wanted anything to do with Kikyo anymore or she could listen to Kagome as the teen blabbed about where Kikyo was and what she was doing, which would lead to Midoriko coming down to the diner to see everything for herself. The latter was what happened.

As soon as she and Inuyasha left, Kagome got on her cell phone to talk to Midoriko. They had small talk for a minute or two because they were cousins and they liked each other. After that, Kagome got to her reason for the call.

"Look, I just wanted to tell you something about Kikyo," Kagome said with noticeable concern in her voice.

"I could care less what new mess my little sister has managed to get herself into," Midoriko stated calmly.

"O…kay," Kagome said in a hesitant tone. She had never heard Midoriko sound so cold toward Kikyo before. "Well, just to let you know then, she's working at a diner over on Fourth—" she was cut off.

"Working at a diner?" Midoriko repeated in a bewildered tone. What was her sister doing working in a diner?

"Yeah, she's a waitress. It was weird."

"Give me the specific address of this place," Midoriko answered and Kagome did just that. The call was then ended.

"You're such a tattletale," Inuyasha accused Kagome.

"Well, someone has to talk to Kikyo and Midoriko is the best at that," Kagome defended her actions.

"She said she knew what she was doing," the dog hanyou pointed out.

"And you believed her?"

"Well, no, but still, I know she'd rather do things her way than have you call her sister on her. You shouldn't get involved," he argued.

"She's my cousin," Kagome pointed out.

"She's a grown woman," Inuyasha countered.

"You just don't understand."

Inuyasha frowned. Whenever Kagome could not win an argument with him, she pulled that "you just don't understand" line. He did understand that Kagome was a busybody. She needed to leave things alone every now and then, especially if Kikyo was involved. Kikyo could handle herself better than most, he was sure of that.

He might not have known Kikyo as long as Kagome, but he knew her pretty well. He knew that despite the fact that she looked like a delicate little flower, she was a rather powerful woman that could take care of herself if necessary. Not to say that he would not help her if she needed it, but at the moment, he did not think that she needed it. He believed that she had some kind of plan and he was willing to let her do what she was going to because he respected her. Not that he was saying that Kagome did not respect Kikyo, but Kagome just could not mind her own business.

--------------

Midoriko arrived at the diner that Kagome had been talking about. She looked around, even though she did not expect her cousin to still be around. She knew that Kagome was more than likely still out with Inuyasha and there was no way that he would patiently wait anywhere for anything.

She strolled inside and scanned the place. She frowned at the thought of her sister working in such a place. What would make her sister sink so low? Maybe their cousin was mistaken…or so she hoped. She did not see Kikyo around. She walked up to the counter.

"Excuse me," she said to the man behind the counter.

"Yes, how can I help a pretty lady such as yourself?" he inquired.

"I'm looking for someone that might work here. Her name is Kikyo," Midoriko informed him.

"Oh, that cute little waitress. She just quit out of the blue today," he told her.

"She quit?" Midoriko echoed.

"Yes, just out of the blue. She waited one last table and then quit while walking out of the door. She said something like it was an emergency and she was sorry for walking out. She was really polite about it. Hard to be mad that she walked out with the way she seemed really sorry for it," he explained.

"Do you know where I can find her?"

"You know you look a lot like her. You her sister or something?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, I'm her older sister. Do you know where I can find her?"

"Can't say I do," he answered honestly.

"She didn't have to give an address or something when she applied for this job?" Midoriko demanded to know.

He shrugged. "Not really my department."

"Then who do I speak to?" she inquired.

He pointed her in the direction of a woman that might be able to help her. Midoriko went back and forth with the woman to find out Kikyo's address and won the information through sheer will. In the end, all of her hard work was for naught. The address turned out to be that of Kikyo's favorite modern art museum. It would seem her sister did not want to be found.

"Fine. Why should I even bother?" Midoriko huffed and she decided to return home. Her anger and frustration were only a front for the true emotions that she was feeling now, worry and anxiety. What if something happened to her little sister? What if she and Kaede never saw Kikyo again? She would never be able to forgive herself, especially considering her last interaction with Kikyo.

----(New day)

Naraku was sitting at his desk at work. He was still trying to get a fix on where Kikyo was, but he could not locate her. It was irksome because now things were not going according to his plan. He had wanted to be gone with Kikyo by now, but she was being difficult. At least no one seemed wise to what he had done. The office was full of fools it seemed.

His attention was turned from papers as his door burst open. He looked up and saw two uniformed men enter the room. They were police officers from the looks of their outfits. He stood up to demand to know what they were doing, but they beat him in speaking.

"Mister Naraku Onigumo, you're under arrest," one of the officers announced.

--------------

Next time: it's time for a physical fight, Sesshomaru versus Naraku.


	16. Mistakes

I don't own these characters.

16: Mistakes

Naraku stared at two police officers that just informed him that he was under arrest. He was not sure what it was all about, but he was not about to go with them as they requested considering all of the crimes that he had under his belt. As they moved to place special handcuffs on him because he was a half-demon, he shoved them aside, hard. The officers crashed into the opposite walls and Naraku made his escape out of the room. He did not make it far as Sesshomaru was blocking his path.

"Going somewhere?" the dog demon inquired in his usual tone of voice.

"Out of my way, mutt," Naraku ordered.

"I believe those gentlemen want you to go with them, worthless half-breed," Sesshomaru commented.

Naraku snarled at the insult. He figured that now was as good a time as any to rid himself of Sesshomaru. He had already tried to get the mutt fired, but it would seem that Totosai did not have the nerve to fire someone that was so blatantly stealing from him as he tried to make it seem the nobleman was. Clearly, he was just going to have to physically take the dog demon down a peg.

Tentacles sprouted from Naraku's back and rushed toward Sesshomaru. The platinum-haired male hardly blinked. There was a flash of green light as he waved his hand and then Naraku's tentacles dropped to the floor, dispatched by Sesshomaru's energy whip.

"Are you done?" Sesshomaru asked in a bored tone.

"Don't talk down to me," Naraku ordered as he flung his hand out and it expanded in size. His fingers turned into spikes and he forced Sesshomaru to the front of the office. He pinned the dog demon against the wall.

The whole office was stunned at what they were witnessing. They did not think that there was a creature alive, save his father, that would best Sesshomaru and yet, there the nobleman was at the mercy of a hanyou. They hoped for Naraku's sake that he was in as much control of the situation as he seemed to be because if Sesshomaru got free, they were certain that police would be arresting a limbless corpse.

Naraku slowly advanced on the dog demon as he morphed his other hand into more sharp spikes. He smirked like the arrogant bastard he was and chuckled a bit. He put a spike to Sesshomaru's throat.

"You should learn to respect your betters, pup. First, you try to steal my account and then my Kikyo. I bet this thing with the police was even set up by you in someway. Whatever the charges, I'll beat them. I always do. Once I get out, I'm going to retrieve my pet and take her to that house in the country to train her properly. You'll never see her again," Naraku commented.

"Why should I care what you do with your human whore?" Sesshomaru inquired.

In reality, Sesshomaru had been trying his best not to think about Kikyo, but now that Naraku brought her up, she was back in his head. He wondered what Naraku meant about retrieving his pet and training her properly. He did not like the sound of it and it angered him to think that the disgusting freak would refer to _his_ Kikyo as a pet and claim that he would train her. What did that sick bastard have in mind for Kikyo?

"That's right, Kikyo is just a little human whore," Naraku agreed with a smile. "She's such a proud, disloyal creature, but she'll learn better now, especially since she has nothing now."

"What are you planning to do to Kikyo?" Sesshomaru demanded to know. His inner demon flaring up, even though he wanted desperately to not care about her fate. Still, while his rational mind was stinging from thoughts of her using him, other parts of him were still loyal to the idea that she was his angel.

Naraku laughed again. He looked around for no real reason. No one was close by; no one wanted to get caught in the middle of the brawl. The police seemed to still be unconscious in his office. It was just him and the foolish dog.

"I'm only going to train her to be what I want. She'll never think to stray to a lesser being again. It'll just be her and me and she'll be more than happy to do anything I want. Maybe I'll make her wear a collar with a tag that proclaims her as my property."

"She would never do anything like that."

"She will, soon enough. Soon, she'll only want to please me because I'll be the only thing that she has left in this world. No mutt, no sisters, no family, just me," Naraku said. It was clear that he was proud and anxious to get to breaking Kikyo.

"Where is she?" Sesshomaru demanded to know.

"Well, maybe she's out with your brother."

Sesshomaru growled. "Don't toy with me, half-breed. Where is she?" he demanded once more. It was as if he could feel that Naraku was lying to him.

"Don't worry about her, mutt. I'll take the best care of her. I'd never leave her," Naraku commented as if he was taunting Sesshomaru.

The dog demon snarled. He would not let such filth harm his angel. He would not allow the grimy half-breed go anywhere, except where he deserved. Naraku was going to jail or he was going to the morgue.

"You think you're so superior," Sesshomaru commented.

"That's why Kikyo is still with me," Naraku replied.

"Only because she holds stock in those ridiculous wedding vows that she made to man that she did not even know. Had she known what you really are, she wouldn't even spit on you if you were on fire."

"Oh, but she would make such concessions for you? Face it, dog, she is with the superior one out of the two of us."

Sesshomaru was done with wasting his time arguing with such a waste of air. He reached up and grabbed onto the arm that Naraku was using to hold him. The hanyou continued to smirk.

"What are you doing now, dog?" Naraku demanded to know in a haughty tone.

"You should never compare yourself to me. Kikyo is with you because that's where I left her. You only live because I don't want to take the time out of my day to destroy you. There are ants on this planet above you," Sesshomaru stated as the limb in his grip began to blacken.

Naraku noticed what was happening with his arm because he was in such horrible pain. The hand holding Sesshomaru disintegrated while the charcoal coloring crept up Naraku's arm like slowly advancing insects. The hanyou could not believe his eyes.

"What did you do to me?" Naraku demanded to know.

"Put you in your place," Sesshomaru replied.

"I can just regenerate it," the hanyou boasted, but as he attempted to do that, he found out that he could not. Whatever Sesshomaru had done to his arm was preventing it from growing back.

"You'll find that my poison makes regeneration rather difficult. Not to mention painful if you keep trying. Would you like me to make the other arm match?" the dog demon inquired while holding up one hand and cracking his knuckles.

"I'll get you for this, mutt," Naraku vowed.

"I doubt it. You won't be seeing the light of day ever again," Sesshomaru stated as the two police officers charged out of Naraku's office and tackled the half-breed.

Sesshomaru stared down at the half-demon with nothing in his golden eyes as the officers cuffed the now one-armed hanyou. He watched them read Naraku his rights and drag the worthless bastard out of the office. While he watched Naraku leave, he thought about everything that he learned about the damned hanyou while trying to prove that he had been framed in embezzling company money. He thought of all of the lies that bastard had to have told Kikyo to trick her into marrying him because the Kikyo that he knew would not have given the real Naraku a passing glance.

In all of the digging that he had done to clear his name, Sesshomaru had come across all kinds of things that Naraku had in his past and he had it all looked into because he had that kind of power at his fingertips once again. He had not really apologized to his parents over his behavior, but it seemed to be a quiet understanding that he was wrong and he had access to things from his father's estate once again. With everything that he found on Naraku, he actually considered that Kikyo might have something on her too since he had been so angry with her and he lumped her in with her bastard spouse. She had nothing, though. Nothing wrong anyway.

He had not found any evidence to back his claims of believing that she was a slut. She had not even gone to her high school prom from what he could tell. He decided to stop thinking about it. She was out of his life and he was better for it.

Naraku was also out of his life, so everything could go back to normal. He could not believe that the boss had hired such a low life. Naraku had not only been stealing from their company, but from the last company that he was involved in too. It seemed that he had ties to organized crime in a number of different ways and he was even wrapped up drugs. He was pretty much a dictionary of crime from what Sesshomaru could tell.

--------------

Kaede was heading toward the subway station when something odd caught her eyes. She noticed a crossing guard helping small children across the street. Now, it was a common sight around elementary schools, but the strange thing was that the crossing guard appeared to be her sister.

There would be another train, she silently commented. She decided that she had to inspect the situation more carefully. She trotted over and saw that it was her sister.

"Kikyo!" Kaede called, which caused her sister to turn.

"Kaede?" Kikyo said as she caught sight of her little sister.

"Wow, it is you," Kaede said. She was not sure if she should smile or not. She did miss her sister. It had been well over a month since she last heard from her and the last time that she saw Kikyo was when the middle sister and the eldest sister had their falling out.

"Yes, it is," Kikyo replied. She wanted to embrace her little sister. She missed her so much, but she was so certain that Kaede hated her now, just like Midoriko.

"How have you been?" the younger female asked awkwardly.

"I can't talk right now, Kaede. I need to focus on this. I wouldn't want a child getting struck because of my inattentiveness," Kikyo explained.

"Right. Well, how long you gonna be here?"

"For a while."

"I can wait for you at the pizza shop on the corner."

"If that is your desire," Kikyo replied. She was a bit stunned that her sister wanted to be seen with her.

Kaede trotted off to the pizza shop, had a slice, and waited for Kikyo to show up. Kikyo did not disappoint her. Kikyo showed up and Kaede asked if she was going to get anything. Kikyo shook her head and so they exited the place. They started walking to no place in particular.

"So, how have you been?" Kaede asked.

"Fine. And yourself?" Kikyo countered.

"Fine too," the preteen replied. She was not sure what to say. Part of her did not want to admit that she missed Kikyo because of what she had seen and what Kikyo had done, but at the same time, she wanted to say that. She wanted her sister to know that she was still wanted.

"School going well?" Kikyo asked.

"Of course. I'm planning on entering the science fair, as soon as I can think of someway to blow the gym up. Kohaku offered to help," Kaede answered.

Kikyo smiled a bit to show her amusement. "That's good."

"So, what've you been up lately and how come you're working as a crossing guard?" the younger female inquired.

"One must do something with her time," Kikyo answered while looking aloofly ahead of them.

"So, you've doing this?"

"One must do something," she repeated.

Kaede nodded. Her sister seemed so melancholic to her suddenly. It was such a change from when she used to see Kikyo. She remembered how happy her sister seemed when she would meet up with them for lunch and she would tell them about things that she did with Sesshomaru. Kaede frowned as she thought about the demon and what her sister did with him.

Kaede had only seen one of the pictures of Kikyo with Sesshomaru, but she could guess that the ones that followed that one were just as bad if not worse considering how angry Midoriko had been. The preteen actually tried to rationalize her anger about the picture, but she could not figure out why it pissed her off so much. She just knew that for the split second that she had saw that photo she had lost all respect that she had for Kikyo, but she just could not figure out why.

"How are things between you and Sesshomaru?" Kaede asked, even though she did not think that it was appropriate. Maybe she would not be so upset if Kikyo reaffirmed that she loved him, Kaede considered.

"It's not really any of your concern," Kikyo answered in a calm tone. It was not that she did not want her little sister to know that the dog demon had promised to kill her if he saw her again, but she just did not want to talk about it.

Kaede frowned a little, even though she knew from her sister's tone that she was not trying to hurtful. "You're still seeing him, aren't you?"

"It's not really any of your concern."

"Aren't you going to tell me anything? I haven't heard from you in over a month. I haven't seen you longer than that. I thought something happened to you!" Kaede said. With the husband that her sister had, she had been entertaining all sorts of thoughts of Kikyo being chopped up and thrown to a garbage bag.

"As you can see, I'm fine," Kikyo replied. She would be even more fine once she felt safe enough to get a hospital job. Saving some lives, healing people, and making them feel better would ease her torment of being alone and forgotten.

"Naraku didn't find out about the affair, did he?"

"It doesn't matter."

"What do you mean?" Kaede asked.

"I mean what I say. It doesn't matter," she repeated. He had known about the affair and had thankfully released her of her vows. Too bad she could not go to the arms of the man that she loved since he now hated her.

"So, where are you headed now?" the younger sister inquired since she could tell that she was not going to get any other information out of Kikyo.

"Nowhere," the elder woman replied. She had a second job, but she did not have to be there for another two hours.

Kaede continued to try to get information out of Kikyo, but she was not very forthcoming. Kikyo seemed tired to her little sister, as if she had been drained of everything that made her Kikyo. The elder female was exhausted. She was tired of every move that she made turning out to be the wrong one.

--------------

Sesshomaru entered his father's home. He was coming to pick up Rin because she wanted to stay over at his house for the weekend. He did not mind having her over and their parents did not mind either, especially since they knew that he would force her to do the homework that she was trying to avoid by going to his house.

Almost immediately when he stepped in, he noticed that something was odd. There was an unfamiliar scent in the house. The scent would not have bothered him, but there was something strangely recognizable to it, even though he knew that he had never smelled it before. He decided to find the source of the weird aroma.

His nose led him to the living room where Inuyasha was playing some video game. There was a girl with him and Sesshomaru's eyes quickly mistook the raven-haired female for Kikyo, but his nose was telling him that was not who she was. Her blood did smell something like Kikyo's though. Who was she?

"Inuyasha, who is your friend?" Sesshomaru demanded to know rather impolitely.

"My friend?" the hanyou echoed and then he realized who his older brother meant. "No one you need to know," he answered while a taunting smirk. He got a kick out of getting on his big brother's nerves.

"Girl, what is your name?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"Uh…" Kagome hesitated because of the full demon's tone.

"Don't tell him nothing," Inuyasha informed Kagome while keeping his eye on the game he was playing.

Sesshomaru sighed and realized that he was not going to get any information acting as he was. "I only ask because you look like someone I know," he told the girl.

"I'm Kagome," she replied.

"Damn it, I told you not to say nothing. You don't fucking listen," Inuyasha complained. He was hoping to bother Sesshomaru some more.

Sesshomaru nodded. He could not get over how much she looked like Kikyo and he began to wonder if maybe she was the one in the pictures walking with Inuyasha. The album photos had clearly been Kikyo, but the other shots had not been so obvious and Kagome looked eerily similar to Kikyo. Then there was the fact that Kagome was currently hanging out with Inuyasha.

Another thought that entered his mind was that he could smell that Kagome spent a great deal of time with Inuyasha. His scent was all over her, but Sesshomaru had never smelled Inuyasha on Kikyo. Something was wrong.

"Do you happen to know a woman named Kikyo?" the full demon asked curiously because her blood smelled something like Kikyo's did.

"She's my cousin," Kagome answered.

Sesshomaru nodded to that, hiding the fact that he was a bit taken aback by the information. Kikyo had a cousin that looked so much like her and that hung out with Inuyasha. It was…interesting.

"You look a lot like her," Sesshomaru managed to comment.

"Yeah, we all sort of look alike," Kagome replied.

"Their mothers were identical twins, so they all came out like almost identical cousins," Inuyasha added. It kind of freaked him out sometimes because they all did just look way too much alike. He was glad for his nose or he would have grabbed the wrong girl on way too many occasions. They probably would have all thought he was a pervert if it was not for his nose.

"Do you know Kikyo?" Kagome asked Sesshomaru curiously.

"I met her in a museum once," the dog demon answered.

"Yeah, a museum, that's just her speed. Nice and boring," Inuyasha commented.

"Don't talk about Kikyo just because she likes doing something educational with her free time," Kagome defended her cousin.

"She's so boring," Inuyasha groaned as if Kikyo's hobbies hurt him.

"That's why she's always tugging on your ears when you see her because you talk about her so much," Kagome informed him.

"All of y'all do that dumb shit, even your mom," Inuyasha huffed. He hated how they rubbed his ears like he was some cute lost puppy and they all knew he hated it, which was why they did it when he got annoying. And, boy, did he get annoying sometimes.

Sesshomaru could not believe the information that he was receiving. Kagome was Kikyo's cousin and it seemed that Inuyasha knew the whole family, not just Kikyo. He was starting to have doubts on the things that he had done and what he believed. But, he still clung to the idea that maybe, just maybe, Kikyo was exactly what he thought she was.

"Have you seen Kikyo recently?" Kagome asked Sesshomaru.

"No, why do you ask?" he countered.

"Crazy bitch is M.I.A from her whole family," Inuyasha replied while pulling back on his game controller.

"Hey!" Kagome huffed and hit the hanyou in the back of the head rather hard for calling her cousin a "crazy bitch." Inuyasha yelped and fell forward.

"Aw, man! Kagome, you made me lose!" the half-demon complained.

"Well, you should mind you manners!" she huffed.

"What? I didn't mean it as an insult?"

"How could 'crazy bitch' not be an insult?"

Sesshomaru got the feeling that the pair would no longer be useful to him and left them to their arguing. He went by the stairs and waited for Rin to charge down. She did not make him wait long.

"Hey, big brother," Rin grinned as she charged down the stairs.

"Good evening, Rin," Sesshomaru replied.

"This is gonna be great. It's been such a long time since I got to spend the night at your house. We should watch monster movies all night," Rin suggested as she and her big brother started toward the door.

"Bye, Rin!" Kagome called from the living room.

"Bye, Kagome!" the preteen screamed in a jubilant tone.

Sesshomaru could not believe how uncivil Rin could be. They went out to the car and Rin chucked her bag and skates, which she never went anywhere without, in the back of the car. She hopped in the front seat and fastened her seatbelt. They then took off.

"Rin, you know Inuyasha's human?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Yeah, that's his girlfriend. She's Kaede's cousin," Rin answered.

"That's odd."

"I guess. It's funny because Inuyasha used to like Kikyo, but he was way too young for her…well, not way too young, but enough for her to not bother with him. And then he met Kagome and kinda forgot that he was attracted to Kikyo," Rin explained.

"He was attracted to Kikyo?"

"Yeah, he met her one time when he took me to the park and she took Kaede. It was a while ago when we were little."

"I see."

"Speaking of Kikyo…have you seen her, big brother?" Rin asked curiously.

"No. Why?"

"Well, I was talking to Kaede the other day and she said she hasn't seen Kikyo in a long time. They're really close, but she hasn't heard from Kikyo and I know she's worried. I mean, I know how I would feel if I didn't hear from you or Inuyasha."

Sesshomaru nodded. "I haven't seen her. We're not really on speaking terms anymore."

"No? I guess that's good since she's married. I thought it would've been cool if you two got together, though. Me and Kaede would be related and Kikyo's really nice."

"Rin."

"Sorry," she apologized. She knew that he did not want her talking about the subject that she had got on.

They went to his apartment and he humored her by watching a couple of monster movies with her. Rin had a thing for zombie movies, but she could only watch then with someone else sitting next to her. Once she fell asleep, Sesshomaru went to his room.

The platinum-haired male went into the drawer by his nightstand and pulled out the photographs of Kikyo and Inuyasha. He looked at the crumbled up pictures of Inuyasha on the street with a female that looked so much like Kikyo. Was it Kagome in actuality? He had been so certain that it was Kikyo, but seeing her cousin made him reconsider.

He began studying the pictures. The person that seemed so much like Kikyo slowly began losing such aspects. She did not seem to be standing right. Her hair was not right. Even her clothes were not right. He was starting to wonder how the hell he even thought that was Kikyo in the first place.

--------------

Kaede sat up in bed. She could not sleep. It was not uncommon for her to have insomnia lately. She thought that it would go away when she finally saw that Kikyo was all right and she had finally gotten the chance to see Kikyo. It was just that she did not believe everything was all right.

She did not think that her sister was doing as fine as she claimed as they spent two hours together earlier. Kikyo seemed so tired, as if she was dragging along. She had not shared much information, which did not help ease Kaede's mind.

The preteen got out of bed and wandered to Midoriko's room. The elder female was sleeping until Kaede flopped down on the bed. Midoriko shot up, looking around in a dazed panic. Once she spotted the girl, she calmed down.

"Oh, Kaede, it's you. What's up?" Midoriko asked with a yawn as she focused her attention on her little sister.

"I couldn't sleep again," Kaede answered.

"You want some tea?"

Kaede ignored the question. "Don't you miss her? Worry about her? What if something happened to her? Imagine if something happened and we weren't there for her. It would be terrible," the child commented in a sorrowful tone.

"This is what she has chosen. This is what she wanted. Don't let it bug you," Midoriko said to comfort her baby sister.

"What if she's in trouble?" the girl asked while holding back tears. She had not told Midoriko that she saw Kikyo because she was not sure how the eldest would react. She was so worried about Kikyo, though. The middle sister had seemed so out of it and it did not help matters that Kaede did not know that Kikyo was divorced since Kikyo never brought it up and Kagome failed to mention it to her cousins.

"This is what she's chosen," Midoriko repeated.

The eldest sister was worried about Kikyo. She had no idea where her younger sister was. Naraku could have done something to her. Sesshomaru could have done something to her. Anything could have happened to Kikyo and Midoriko felt helpless and useless for not being able to be there for her sister. All she had left in the world was her sisters and she had thrown one of them to the wind, left her to the elements. She was a horrible big sister.

--------------

Next time: Midoriko and Sesshomaru meet for the first time.


	17. Searching

I don't own these characters.

17: Searching

Midoriko was not sure what she was doing, but she was doing it with a purpose. She marched into County lockup and went right to his cell. The smug bastard was sitting on the bed with a smirk on his face.

"All right, you hanyou scum, where is my sister?" Midoriko demanded to know. She was worried about her sister and when she found out that Naraku was in jail, all she could think was that something happened to Kikyo. She tried calling her sister's cell only to find out that the number was no longer available. She checked all of Kikyo's haunts to find out that she was not at any of them. She did not know what to think. She probably should have expressed her worry to Kaede, who could have at least told Midoriko that Kikyo was fine because she knew where Kikyo worked.

Instead, Midoriko went to the one person that she was certain would know where her sister was, namely Naraku. He was easy to find considering the fact that he had just gotten arrested Friday afternoon. He was stuck there until Monday when his bail would be set.

"It is nice to see you, Midoriko," Naraku said with mock pleasantness.

"Spare me. Where's my sister?" she demanded once again. Her worry had been amplified ten fold when she found out that one of the charges Naraku was being held on was suspicion of murder. The charge was from a few years ago when he supposedly stole the identity of a man whose body they recently found in the mountains; he had drained the dead man's bank account. She did not want to know anything more about the crimes that he might have committed. She just wanted to know where the hell her little sister was.

"What makes you think I know?" he asked in a teasing tone.

"Don't mess with me, insect. If anything has happened to my sister—"

"I know. Something along the lines of I'll be reduced to a pile of ashes blowing in the wind. You do that and you'll never find Kikyo."

"Where is she?" Midoriko snarled.

"To be quite truthful, I haven't a clue. Have you tried the dog demon that she enjoys bending over backwards for? Perhaps he has her," the half-demon commented.

Midoriko was silent. She considered that he might be trying to get information from her by acting like he knew something about her sister's affair. One false move and she could confirm his suspicions and put her sister in danger. Danger that she was sure Kikyo was in if he did know about her affair.

"Don't be so quiet now, Midoriko. I do know what she does with that flea-bitten mongrel. I know everything that she does," the half-breed stated.

"Then tell me where she is."

"Like I said, the mutt that she bends over backwards for might know. Have you asked him about her? She might be lying underneath him as we speak…or worse," he commented.

"I hope they fry you," she said.

"When they set bail, it will be posted. If you see Kikyo before then, tell my dearest I'm coming to get her soon," he informed her with a smirk.

Midoriko did not like the sound of that, nor did she like the look on his face. She had to find her younger sister soon and make sure that she was safe. She exited the jail and got on her phone. She sent a text message to Kaede that read "What's Rin's number?"

--------------

Kaede was sitting with Kikyo at the time her phone went off. She did not check it right away after she saw it was a text message. She went back to telling Kikyo about a stunt that Kohaku had pulled off a few days ago in the park.

"Sounds difficult," Kikyo commented with a small smile as Kaede finished up.

"It is. Me and Rin tried after him. We landed right on our backs. It hurt a lot," Kaede reported with a laugh.

"I'm sure it did."

"Hey, Kikyo, did you hear that Naraku got arrested?" the preteen asked.

Kikyo looked surprised by that. "No, I didn't hear anything about that."

"Yeah, it was in the paper today. Midoriko was reading it and then she left the apartment in a rush."

"Did you read it too?" Kikyo asked curiously.

"Yeah, he's wanted for a lot of stuff according to the paper. Said they had a rush of evidence to tie him to a lot of things. So, you didn't even know your husband was locked up?" the child inquired.

"I'm not looking to keep tabs on him. He is not my husband anymore," Kikyo informed her sister.

"When did that happen?" Kaede asked in complete shock. She was not sure if it was appropriate to express happiness with such news, but she was damn happy! She was fighting with herself not to grin up a storm. It was about time that he got out of her sister's life.

"Quite a while ago," Kikyo replied.

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kaede inquired.

"We weren't speaking at the time and now I'd like to forget it happened. I'd like to move on with my life."

"Okay. So, are you gonna marry Sesshomaru now?" Kaede asked with hope in her voice. It would be so cool if they did get married because then she would be related to Rin and that would kick ass.

"Not likely."

"Why not? I thought you loved him."

Kikyo was reluctant to tell her sister what happened. It was not important and she would rather forget about that too. So, she just let the subject disappear in the breeze.

While they were sitting in silence, Kaede decided to check her message. She craned an eyebrow when she saw what Midoriko wanted to know. She sent a response, providing the information that Midoriko wanted. She supposed that it was a slick move of her big sister to send a text because had Midoriko called, Kaede would have been asking all sorts of questions.

--------------

Midoriko wasted no time using Rin's number. The preteen was stunned to hear from her best friend's big sister, but she was even more shocked to find out what Midoriko wanted from her. The older woman wanted her big brother's number and she knew that Midoriko did not mean Inuyasha. Rin did not argue and supplied the number. It was the wisest thing to do for the moment.

Midoriko then called up Rin's brother. She was antsy as it rang a couple of times before he answered. She cut right to the chase.

"Listen, dog, where is my sister?" Midoriko demanded to know.

"And this is?" Sesshomaru inquired in a more deadpan tone than usual.

"Midoriko. Where is my sister?"

"Ah, you're Kikyo's older sister."

"I am. Now, where is she?" she inquired.

"Why would I know, woman?" he countered. He did not want to have anything to do with that female.

"Is she there with you now?" Midoriko inquired. She needed to know where Kikyo was immediately. Who knew what Naraku might do to her when he made bail and she was not in the mood to find out.

"Of course not," he answered. He could hear the slight panic in the woman's voice. Was his angel in trouble?

"Do you know where she is?" Midoriko demanded to know.

"I do not. What's wrong?" he asked. He did not want to seem concerned, but he was. His angel's older sister was calling him for the first time sounding a bit panicked while looking for her. He just could not help being a bit worried.

"I just…I don't know where she is." The woman was close to panicking in her car. She felt like she was going to hyperventilate. She clutched her steering wheel tightly and used all of her self-control to avoid crying. What if that monster had already done something with Kikyo? What if she was tied up in some basement? What if she was at the bottom of a lake?

"Well, when was the last time that you saw her?" he inquired. Why was she so panicked that he could hear it in her voice, even though she was trying her best to be calm? Was Kikyo in danger?

"Over a month ago."

"Sounds like you saw her about the same time I did," he commented.

"What? You saw her so long ago? Aren't you two involved?"

"Not since I found out that she was also involved with my brother."

"You mean Inuyasha? She's not involved with him. They're friends if anything at all, but nothing more," she informed him.

Sesshomaru had suspected as much since figuring out that the girl in the pictures with Inuyasha that seemed to be taken by a professional was not Kikyo. After meeting Kagome and staring at the pictures, it was almost obvious that it was her in the pictures. Still, he told himself that Kikyo had some kind of involvement with Inuyasha as justification for saying the things he had said to his angel, not to mention threatening her life.

"Well, this proved fruitless. If you see her, tell her…tell her to call me," Midoriko pled.

"Wait, why are you looking for her? What's wrong? Is she in danger?" Sesshomaru inquired.

"She might be. I went to see Naraku after I find out about his arrest. I wanted to know if she was all right because I haven't seen her in so long and I had no idea that he was slimier than I first assumed. He wouldn't tell me…he wouldn't tell me where she was," she explained. She was so close to tears. What if that day Kikyo had pled for her help was their final conversation? What if the last time that she saw her sister was the time that she slapped? A sob escaped her throat as she thought of that.

Sesshomaru heard the sob and swallowed a lump in his throat. If her sister was so worried, was his angel in danger? Naraku was behind bars, so he could not harm Kikyo…unless he was given bail. Oh, great, he sighed mentally. Kikyo might be in danger.

"Where are you right now?" Sesshomaru asked.

"Excuse me?" she countered.

"Your location, tell me. I'll meet you and we can search together. I'm sure my nose will come in handy," he explained. He could not believe that he just volunteered his nose out loud. He must really be worried, he considered.

"You'll help?" she said as if she was shocked.

"I will," he confirmed. "So, your location?"

Midoriko told him where she was and he stated that he would be at her in ten minutes. No more than ten minutes later, Sesshomaru pulled up behind Midoriko's parked car. He exited his vehicle and walked up to hers. He found her slumped over the steering wheel. It seemed that she was so distressed that she did not even notice him.

"Midoriko?" he asked.

"Yes?" she said, looking up.

Sesshomaru was a bit taken aback. Kagome was not lying when she said they all looked alike. Midoriko looked just like Kikyo except with a different hair style. He hid his surprise to the sight well, though.

"I'm Sesshomaru," he introduced himself.

"Yes, I recognize you from the photos," she commented as she stared at him.

"Photos?" he echoed. "What photos?" he inquired.

"Oh, nothing," she said as she realized that she had said that out loud.

"Did Naraku send you photographs too?" he asked.

"Too?"

"A little over a month ago, he sent me some photos of Kikyo with my stupid little brother," he half-explained.

"Is that why you thought that she was involved with Inuyasha?" she asked curiously.

Sesshomaru did not answer that question. "Did he send you photos too?"

"He did," she affirmed.

"We might have played right into that fool's filthy hands. Now, we don't know where Kikyo is, he obviously knows about what she's done, and he could be doing anything to her," Sesshomaru frowned.

He could not believe that he allowed that disgusting hanyou to trick him. He should have figured out sooner that the person in those photos was not Kikyo. He should have spoken to her rather than threatened her. Now, she was probably alone, possibly in danger, and could be lost to him forever. Fool, he berated himself.

"You think that he tricked us?" Midoriko asked.

"He turned us against her, so now she's unguarded. Who knows what a sick bastard like he is might do to her," Sesshomaru replied.

"You're right. We have to find her before he posts bail."

"All right. Let's go check all of her favorite places."

"I've done that already," she informed him.

"You didn't do it with my nose around. I might be able to catch her scent somewhere."

"All right, get in," she told him.

"Are you in a proper mental state to drive?" he inquired.

"Yes, get in," she insisted. Now was not the time to question if she could drive! They had to find Kikyo and quickly.

Sesshomaru did not argue and he got into the car on the passenger side. They started their search and hoped that they found Kikyo before the day was out. If Naraku made bail, they did not even want to think about what might happen.

"So, I'm guessing that you broke things off with my sister," Midoriko commented.

"And that's your business, how?" he inquired.

"Just trying to understand why my sister would make another horrid decision in life," she replied.

"Horrid? Seeing a demon," he guessed.

"Not only that, but she is married. Sure, he's the scum of the Earth, but she made the decision."

"So, she should continue to suffer it?"

"I see and you relieved that suffering?" Midoriko inquired.

Sesshomaru's jaw tightened. No, he had not relieved that suffering. He had merely added to it by making her into a liar, encouraging her to break her word, and then tossing her aside while calling her a whore and threatening to kill her.

"And you have not wronged your sister, I suppose," the dog demon countered.

Touché, she silently admitted. She had turned Kikyo away when she had come for help. She had even invaded Kikyo's privacy by looking at those pictures that it seemed Naraku had sent. She should not have paid the photos any mind. Kikyo was an adult and allowed to do what she wanted with the man that she thought that she loved. The problem was just that at one point in time, she thought that she loved Naraku too.

"Fine, neither us is perfect, despite what we wish to think," Midoriko said.

Sesshomaru nodded ever so slightly to that. His perfection had to be open to question if he had allowed himself to be tricked by Naraku. He had had the perfect woman in his grips and he had allowed one set of sketchy photos from the most filthy, disgusting creature that he had ever come across. He doubted that he had ever or would ever do something so stupid again. He hoped that his stupidity did not cost Kikyo.

--------------

Midoriko sighed as she entered the apartment. Her search with Sesshomaru had been fruitless. He could not pick up Kikyo's scent at any of her favorite places, so she had not been to them in at least a week. Midoriko had no idea where she might find her sister or what might have happened to her. What if Naraku had gotten to her already?

"Kaede, are you here?" Midoriko called.

"Living room," Kaede answered.

Midoriko pulled her shoes off and marched to the living room. There she discovered her little sister in pajamas and eating some leftovers. She flopped down on the sofa next to Kaede.

"Tough day?" the child answered.

"Indeed," the adult replied.

"What did you want Rin's number for?"

"Nothing too important," Midoriko replied. She was looking to avoid worrying her little sister. The girl already had trouble sleeping, so she did not know what might happen to Kaede if she knew that their sister might be in danger.

"She called me and told me you asked for her big brother's number," Kaede admitted.

"I did," Midoriko confirmed.

"Why'd you call him? To yell at him?"

"Why would I yell at him?" Midoriko asked.

"Because of what he did with Kikyo."

Midoriko nodded to show that was a good reason, but perhaps he did not do anything to Kikyo. She did not have a horrible feeling about him like she had when she had met Naraku. She did not feel like he would injure her sister like she figured Naraku might do. If he had feelings about Kikyo, they probably were not unholy like Naraku's feelings were.

"I didn't yell at him," Midoriko replied.

"Then why did you call him? Tell me, big sister," Kaede implored the eldest.

"It's nothing to worry about."

"Does it have to do with Kikyo? Is it because she got a divorce?" the child inquired.

"A divorce? Kaede, how do you know that she got a divorce?" Midoriko asked.

Kaede eeped. She had said that because she thought that Midoriko knew. Okay, well, that secret was not a secret anymore. She had to stop assuming that her elder sisters knew everything, especially when talking to Midoriko about Kikyo.

"Have you spoken to Kikyo lately, Kaede?" Midoriko demanded to know.

"Um…" the child stammered.

"Kaede, tell me now," the eldest demanded.

"Yes, yes I have."

"When? Where?"

"Today," Kaede answered. She wondered why Midoriko was getting so fanatic over things.

"Today!" Midoriko hollered in shock.

"Yes," Kaede confirmed.

"Then she's all right?" Midoriko asked and as soon as her little sister affirmed that, she breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least she knew that Kikyo was still living and breathing. That was good.

"Why? Is something wrong?" Kaede asked.

"No, everything is fine. Where did you speak with Kikyo?"

"Near that mini-mall," the preteen answered.

"Which mini-mall?"

"The one over by the number 9 train," Kaede replied.

"Does she live over there?"

"No, she works over there. I don't know where she lives."

"Have you asked?" Midoriko asked curiously.

"Yes, but she never answers. She always says something like it's nothing for me to worry about."

Midoriko sighed in despair. She still did not know where Kikyo was. Wait, but maybe Kaede would meet up with her again.

"Kaede, are you going to see her again?" the eldest inquired.

"Maybe tomorrow. I think she'll wait around for me. She did that today. She misses us so much, big sis," Kaede reported.

"I'm sure she does."

"Do you…miss her too?" the youngest sister asked.

"I do," Midoriko admitted.

"It's okay. She's not mad or anything. You're not mad, right?"

"No, not anymore."

Midoriko silently admitted to herself that Sesshomaru was not so bad for a demon. He was definitely better than Naraku. He also seemed genuinely concerned about her sister, even though it seemed like he was attempting to control himself. She could understand that; he had done a better job than she did at remaining in control. She had nearly broken down into tears when they did not find Kikyo. He had actually been rather supportive of her and assured her that they would find Kikyo before Naraku did.

Midoriko decided to call Sesshomaru later that night to let him know that Kaede knew where to find Kikyo. He pretended not to care, but he was not pulling it off well in her opinion. He wanted to know where the place was at that very moment. She suspected that he wanted to sniff around for Kikyo, but she did not have an exact address to give him. Kaede had not been able to give her an exact address, just the vague location.

----(Next day)

Kikyo left the tiny apartment that she was renting. She was pleased to find out that Naraku was having legal problems. She figured that he would have his hands tied with that and she would be able to start rebuilding her life. She was already going to go see about a position in a hospital. She was close to smiling at the thought of being able to heal people again. Maybe everything would work out fine despite all that happened, she considered.

Once she finished with hospital business, she decided to go see if Kaede was waiting for her. She made it halfway to her destination before she ran into the last person that she wanted to see. She thought that she was rid of him.

"Naraku," Kikyo pretty much growled the name. He was standing in front of her, blocking her path.

"Hello, dearest. You don't look happy to see me," Naraku remarked with a smirk.

"I thought that you had been arrested," she commented.

"Yes, but I had a bail hearing this morning and posted bond. Great legal system that we have in this country," he replied.

"Well, good for you," she said in a clipped tone. "What happened to your arm?" she inquired as if she really cared. She was curious as to who or what caught up with him.

"Nothing too serious," he answered while glancing down at the stump he was now sporting. Damn that dog and his poisonous claws. He would get Sesshomaru back after he got everything else done.

"That is a shame," she commented while trying to walk by him. He turned to walk with her, though.

"Where do you think you're going?" he inquired.

"To live my life, not that it's any of your business anymore. Or have you forgotten that we are no longer married?" she pointed out.

"That's just a legal technicality. You do still belong to me," he replied. He was a bit stunned to find that she was still trying to go on, but that did not bother him. It just meant that there was more of her to break and he enjoyed watching her shatter.

"I belong to no one," she declared.

"You're mine, Kikyo," he growled and then he grabbed her.

"Let me go," she commanded.

"I will do nothing of the sort," he replied while forcing her into a narrow alleyway that they were close to. He was not going to let her think that she could just order him around and he was going to let her know that she belonged to him.

"Release me now," she ordered.

He obliged her that time. He shoved her away from him into the wall of the dead-end alley. She grunted upon impact with the bricks.

"What do you think you're doing?" Kikyo demanded to know.

"You're still mine, Kikyo, and you're always going to be mine. You're coming with me," Naraku informed her.

"I'm not going anywhere with you. You shouldn't be going anywhere anyway. Surely you have a court date that you cannot miss," she said.

"You're coming with me."

"I will not go anywhere with you."

"You don't seem to understand that you don't have a choice, dearest," he commented with his usual arrogant smirk. He pointed his good arm at her and spikes grew from his limb toward her.

"Naraku, I will not let you harm me," she informed him.

"How fast are your hands, Kikyo? Would you be able to grab me before I impaled you on my fingertips? Do you know how long I've wanted your blood to touch my skin?" he inquired.

--------------

"Are you sure this is where you usually meet her?" Midoriko asked Kaede as the two sisters stood on a corner. Sesshomaru was with them.

"Yeah, and she's usually here before me," Kaede answered. She had been stunned to say the least when Sesshomaru joined them. She wanted to know what was going on and why her big sister and Sesshomaru were joining forces to find Kikyo. She had asked several times if Kikyo was in trouble or something like that and they both assured her that it was nothing big.

"She has been here recently," the dog demon confirmed. He could pick up Kikyo's scent around the place underneath all of the other scents covering the area.

"But where is she now?" Midoriko wondered. "Kaede, are you certain she doesn't have a cell number?"

"Yeah, she said she can't afford the bill at the moment," the child answered.

"Wait, I think I have something," Sesshomaru informed them as he discreetly sniffed the air; he would never blatantly or noticeably smell the air like his brother did when hunting for people. He frowned as he caught whiff of Kikyo's fragrance coming downwind, but it was mixed with a foul air.

"What's wrong?" Midoriko inquired when she noticed him making that face.

"I smell Naraku with her," he answered.

"He got to her first?" Midoriko gasped.

"What? What happened?" Kaede asked.

"I'll get to her and make sure that fool doesn't harm her," Sesshomaru vowed and he took off in a ball of light.

"Kaede, wait here," Midoriko ordered. She was going to follow Sesshomaru's aura until she sensed her sister's spiritual signature.

"What's going on?" Kaede called to the sky as her eldest sister ran off.

--------------

Next time: the end. Will they make it to Kikyo in time?


	18. Let’s start over

I don't own these characters.

18: Let's start over

Kikyo watched as Naraku tried to taunt her by aiming a threatening spike at her. She was waiting for him to launch whatever attack he had in mind. The spike was one of the hanyou's fingers that he was manipulating. He seemed to want to see which one of them had faster reflexes. He believed that he would have her impaled before she had a chance to harm him, not that he believed she would even do that. And even if she did, he believed that she was not powerful enough to truly hurt him.

Naraku let the thorn fly forward and it crashed against a spiritual barrier. He was stunned that Kikyo could do such a thing. He growled and pushed forward, trying to break through. She grunted as she tried to keep the barrier up. He was stronger than she had given him credit for.

Naraku smirked as he released more spikes and stressed the barrier to the point of collapse. Kikyo gasped, both because her barrier had been breached and he managed to impale her. He had thorns in her right shoulder and arm, pinning her to the wall behind her. His hand was not unharmed, but he did not mind that there were cuts on his hand.

"It does feel special having your blood on my fingertips," he commented.

"Don't think so highly of yourself yet, Naraku," she replied as she grabbed his wrist.

Kikyo pumped Naraku so full of spiritual energy that she burned his hand off. He fell back while she ripped the hand from her flesh. She then turned her attention to him because he was laughing. She wondered what was so funny and then she noticed what was seeping out of his charred stump, miasma. She turned her attention to her wounds and noticed that they were purple-ish in color. The bastard had poisoned her when he put his injured hand into her flesh because that miasma leaked into her system.

"You filthy wretch!" she shouted as she tried to advance on his, but her arm pulsed with agony and she fell back against the wall. Blood gushed from her wounds.

Naraku continued to laugh. "I could cure you, but you have to come with me. If I can't have you, no one can," he replied.

"That's where you're wrong," Sesshomaru commented as he stepped into the alleyway, causing attention to be turned to him.

"Sessho," Kikyo whispered.

"Are you all right?" Sesshomaru asked Kikyo as he marched into the alley toward her. He ignored the half-breed for the moment, but he was going to deal with him soon enough.

"Look out!" Kikyo warned the dog demon as Naraku tried to impale the dog demon.

Sesshomaru calmly turned around and countered the hanyou's attack with his energy whip. He cut through the remainder of Naraku's arm, burning cleanly through, so no miasma oozed out from the wound. He growled and was about to march over to the hanyou who seemed so anxious to die in his opinion, but Kikyo collapsed.

"Kikyo," Sesshomaru gasped and he was by her side in a split second. "What's wrong?" he demanded to know.

"Don't worry about me. Don't let him attack you too," she replied.

"Do you think I'm worried about that flea? He couldn't harm this Sesshomaru. Now, tell me what's wrong with you," he commanded her.

"I've poisoned her, mutt. If I can't have her, she'll die. Simple as that," Naraku announced in a proud tone.

"As if I would allow someone like you to continue to taint my angel," the dog demon declared and he charged Naraku in pure anger.

The half-demon tried to flee. He got up and ran to the mouth of the alley and he ran right into Midoriko. She grabbed him by his shoulders and then noticed her fallen sister. She knew that he had something to do with Kikyo's state, so she let him have it. She sent a good jolt of spiritual energy through his body, enough to cause him to drop to the ground when she let him go. She then rushed to Kikyo's side.

"Kikyo," Midoriko said.

"Big sister." Kikyo forced out a weak smile. She was so glad that Midoriko was speaking to her again.

"What happened? What did he do? Where are you injured?" the eldest inquired.

"Poison in my wounds," Kikyo replied in a low voice.

"Sesshomaru, we have to get her to a hospital!" Midoriko informed him in a frantic tone.

"I can take her," he replied. He could move faster than any ambulance if he wanted to and he would do that to have his angel's life.

"All right, let me purify her wounds first," Midoriko said.

"Do it," he replied.

Midoriko went to work on Kikyo, hoping to get whatever poison Naraku used on her out of the younger woman's system. Sesshomaru watched the sisters for a moment and then he turned back to the front of the alley. Naraku was climbing to his feet.

"Impossible," the sisters muttered together.

"It seems you just want me to kill you," Sesshomaru commented, speaking to Naraku. He was happy to oblige.

"Kikyo is mine, mutt," Naraku growled. His body was still smoking for the treatment that Midoriko gave him. He suspected had he been a lesser demon, she would have fulfilled all of the threats that she had made over the years about reducing him to a pile of ashes. But then again, Kikyo probably would have done the same earlier when she took his hand off if he was a weaker hanyou.

"If you think you can, come take her," Sesshomaru dared the fool.

Naraku seemed to take the dog demon up on his offer and strained to create some more spikes from his body. As soon as he started his attack, Sesshomaru was on him within the blink of an eye. The nobleman put his hand through Naraku's chest. The hanyou began laughing and the dog demon wondered what was so funny about being impaled on his arm. Then he found out what had Naraku so tickled. It would seem that the poison he used on Kikyo came from his own disgusting body.

"You'll die just like her," Naraku informed the full demon.

"Your stench has no affect on me," Sesshomaru replied as he released his own poison into Naraku through his claws.

"What?" the hanyou growled.

"As if I would allow a weak-willed fool to be the death of me," the platinum-haired male replied.

Sesshomaru gracefully yanked his hand out of Naraku, dropping the hanyou to the ground once again. The half-breed began coughing and he felt like all of his insides were being turned into powder. Sesshomaru was about to turn his attention back to the sisters when he heard the sound of approaching sirens. The police showed up moments later. It would seem someone noticed all of the commotion in the alley and called it in.

--------------

Kikyo's eyes fluttered open. She groaned softly while silently noting that she was in some pain. She stared at the ceiling since that was what her head was facing.

"You're finally awake," Midoriko commented.

"Sister?" Kikyo asked in a weak voice as she turned her head to the sound of her older sister. Taking in the background, she was able to tell that she was in a hospital bed.

"We were all worried about you," Midoriko replied.

"All?" the younger female echoed.

"Auntie and her family are here. Kagome dragged Inuyasha, who claims he doesn't care as long as you're alive. Kaede is here and Rin is keeping her company."

"I thought…I thought everyone was done with me," Kikyo said.

"No, we're all here for you, little sister," Midoriko promised.

Kikyo wanted to ask about Sesshomaru. She could not recall exactly what happened, but she remembered him being there. Had she imagined that? She decided against asking, though because she thought that it might upset her big sister and she was happy that Midoriko was there, speaking to her again.

"Kikyo, I'm sorry for abandoning you when you needed me, when you needed us. I shouldn't have judged you. You do love him, after all," Midoriko apologized.

"You don't have to apologize. I went about all of this wrong," Kikyo said.

"You did all that you could. If you had asked for a divorce, Naraku would have never agreed. He would have never allowed you to leave him of your own will. You should be allowed to seek peace and remain with it where you find it. It was wrong of me to make it seem as if you should be content with your misery. I don't wish that on you, sister," the eldest explained.

"Speaking of Naraku, what happened to him?"

"I'll tell you once you're totally better," Midoriko replied.

Kikyo nodded and accepted that. Through the day, she was visited by everyone that was at the hospital for her. They all seemed so genuinely glad that she was all right. She was glad that they were not upset with her.

Kikyo glanced out of the window in the room when she was alone. She thought her family was going home because visiting hours were over, but they were actually giving her sometime alone for a specific reason. She turned her head to face the door as she heard it open. Sesshomaru stepped in, holding a bouquet of red and white roses.

"Sessho…" Kikyo said in a low voice.

"Good evening. Are you feeling better?" he inquired as he walked over to her. He handed her the flowers, which earned him a confused look from the bedridden female.

"What are you doing here? Why are you giving me flowers?" she asked in a suspicious tone.

"I thought that it would be a step in the right direction for you to one day find it in your big heart to forgive me for being a fool," he informed her.

Kikyo was so stunned that she was speechless. She could not believe that he was admitting to being something other than being perfect. She just stared at the dog demon because she did not know what else to do.

"Should I bring a bigger bouquet?" he inquired since she was not speaking. He had actually purchased the largest one possible, but he supposed that he could purchase a few more and just put them altogether if that would make her feel better.

"No," she finally managed. "I thought…I thought that you hated me now," she pointed out.

"I could never hate my angel. I merely made a bad decision on certain things."

"What things?"

"Well, let's just say, you and your cousin look disturbing alike," he commented.

"What does that have to do with anything?" she asked and then she remembered who her cousin was dating. "Did you see Kagome with Inuyasha and assume that it was me?" she inquired curiously.

"I did," he confirmed.

Kikyo could not help it, she started laughing. It was not the first time there had been a case of mistaken identify with her cousin. Sometimes, people thought that she was Kagome or that Kagome was her. There were also occasions when she was mistaken for her older sister or the other way around. People usually had to get very close up to tell which one of them it was if they did not know all of the relatives well.

"Is it so funny?" Sesshomaru asked. He thought that her laughter was a better sign than anything else that she could have done.

"You hurt me so badly over something that could have so easily been shown false had you spoken to me. It is funny like when a clown dies," she answered.

"I fail to see how that is funny," he commented.

"Indeed, I agree with you. I fail to see how it is funny. It was such a harsh pain that all I can do is laugh," Kikyo explained.

Sesshomaru was a bit taken back by that. It would seem that he was not going to get out of things so easily. He supposed that he deserved such a thing.

"You can leave now, Sesshomaru," Kikyo said in an almost curt manner.

"Wait," he objected.

"There's no reason for you to be here. You so easily thought so little of me. How can there be anything between us if you would think that I could be with your little brother while being with you? This whole thing started off wrong and it should just die," she commented.

"Don't say that!" he snarled. "This was far from wrong. I made a mistake, but that doesn't make this wrong."

"You assumed that I cheated on you with your little brother. I'm sure the fact that I was married and cheating with you influenced that idea. You probably assume that it is so easy for me to do such a thing."

"I do not think that. I let him get to me, all right. I should have spoken to you rather believing pictures."

"Pictures?" she echoed. "Naraku sent them?" she was willing to bet it was him.

"Yes."

"And you believed something that Naraku sent you over me. That's even worse," she pointed out.

"Kikyo," he said while searching his mind for someway to keep her in his life. "I admit that I was wrong and I judged you most unfairly. It was a foolish thing to do, but I would never make such a mistake again. I don't think lowly of you."

Kikyo looked skeptical on that. She felt like if she continued anything with Sesshomaru, he would always be suspicious of her. He would always wonder where she was going and what she did when she was alone. He would never trust her and they could not have anything if he did not trust her.

"Angel, I love you," he announced and that was second big shock that he delivered to her. Kikyo was pretty sure that her heart stopped beating for a few seconds.

"Sessho, don't."

"I love you," he repeated forcefully.

"No, you don't," she objected and she shook her head. He could not love her. He did not trust her, so he could not love her and it was not fair of him to lie like that.

"I do," he vowed and he leaned down to embrace her. He held her carefully, but she struggled in his arms.

"No, you don't," she repeated with tears falling from her eyes. She was hurting her injured shoulder trying to escape him.

"Be still," he ordered. "And do not cry. I do love you. You are my angel and I will cherish, protect, and love you always," he promised.

"You say that now."

"And I will say it everyday. I was a fool. I will work for my whole life to get you to forgive me for what I did, just stay with me. I need you. You are the best thing in my life aside for my little sister," he informed her.

"You don't mean that," she said with tears continuing down her face.

"I do. I will be your eternal slave if that would make up for my actions," he said and he meant those words.

Kikyo could not believe what she was hearing. The proud dog demon had actually just offered himself up as a slave to a little human? Even if he did not mean the words literally, they were still powerful. He was Sesshomaru, after all. The greatest thing ever made as far as he was concerned and he had just offered himself to her.

"Sessho…" she whispered. She was not sure what she wanted to say.

"Make a command and I will do it," he promised her.

"I don't want that," she replied.

"What do you want? What can I do to get you to stay with me? I want you to stay with me," he informed her very sincerely. "I'll be so good to you, angel. Just give me another chance. I'll be so good to you."

Kikyo bit her lip. She could hear the distress in his voice and the honesty in his words. She could only answer him in one way because she loved him too.

"Sessho, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to give me anything. Just love me like this always, please," she requested.

"I can and will," he promised and he gave her a tender kiss.

They both missed the feel of the others lips and thoroughly enjoyed the sweet embrace. Sesshomaru pulled away; he did not think that she needed to get too excited in her current injured state. He noticed that she was crying new tears, so he wiped them away with a gentle sweep of his hand.

"So, what happened with Naraku?" Kikyo asked curiously.

"I killed him," Sesshomaru answered nonchalantly.

"You killed him?" she inquired in disbelief. She could not believe how easily he admitted that.

"I did," he confirmed.

"What happened? I don't really remember," she said.

"Well, it would seem that your older sister had attempted to kill him with her spiritual powers after she discovered you in the alley. I would have dispatched him before that, but you were so hurt that I went to your aid first. He unwisely remained alive after Midoriko's treatment of him and I finished it. He was not even dust by the time the police arrived," Sesshomaru reported.

"The police?"

"Yes, the police arrived and they are the reason I wasn't here sooner. I had to give a statement."

"Are you in trouble?" she asked.

"No," he answered bluntly. He was not in trouble. Naraku's demise had been ruled a justifiable homicide once he explained what happened and there were a few other witnesses that had backed up his story. Had Naraku not been a half-demon, charges of manslaughter might have been brought up, but two demons going against each other was different from two humans going at each other.

"Then, it's all over? I don't have to worry about him again?" she inquired as if she did not understand.

"No, you don't."

Kikyo smiled. She knew it was wrong to smile because someone was dead, but she had her life back. She could finally go back to working and she would never have to look over her shoulder for that lying, insane hanyou.

----(New day)

"Sessho, come on or we'll be late," Kikyo called into his workroom.

Kikyo stepped onto the room to try to pry him away from his painting. She did not live with him, but they were planning to move in sometime soon. She thought that they needed to start their relationship over and rebuild, which he agreed to just because he felt he owed her. So, for the past few months they had been trying rebuild their relationship and believed that they were doing a decent job.

"One moment," Sesshomaru replied as he put the finishing touches on his latest painting. He had done a portrait of a white dog looking into the midnight sky, seeing the silhouette of an angel.

"Now, or we'll be late," she pointed out.

"All right," he sighed.

"Don't make that noise. It'll be fun," she assured him.

"I doubt it."

Kikyo offered him a smile for his troubles and sat down on his lap. He turned his attention to her as she made herself comfortable against him. He rested his hand on her hip.

"You promised," she reminded him.

"I know," he replied.

"It'll be fine. You promised you'd come with me. So, get up and let's go," she said.

Sesshomaru groaned, but he did not argue. He did have better ideas on how they should spend Kikyo's day off, though. She was now a doctor at a small clinic and she thoroughly enjoyed her job. She got weekends off most of the time, but sometimes, she went in to help out on the weekends. She always said that people got sick no matter what the day and she wanted to help.

The dog demon got up, careful not to let Kikyo fall. He went to change his clothes and they finally left. Sesshomaru drove them to Kikyo's aunt's home. They were getting together for a family barbeque. They pulled up just time to almost hit Rin with the car.

"Rin, what do you think you're doing?" Sesshomaru inquired as he parked.

"I was going to jump garbage can over there until you showed up," Rin answered while pointing to the can on the sidewalk. Her brother turned to look; she never would have made it in his opinion.

"Where's Inuyasha? Why isn't that fool watching you?" he asked.

"Because I'm thirteen," she answered.

"That doesn't excuse either of you," he stated. "Now, where is that fool?" he pondered as he marched off into the backyard to give their brother a piece of his mind.

"It is so tough being the middle child. You do know you got Inuyasha into trouble, right?" Kikyo asked Rin.

"Hey, if not me, he'd do something stupid sooner or later," the child replied with a shrug.

"I suppose. Where's Kaede? I'm stunned she's not out here egging you on to break your neck," Kikyo replied.

"Oh, she was. She went to get some lemonade and I was just doing a practice to see if I could do it," Rin explained.

Kikyo shook her head. "How about you forget the stunt and go get some lemonade too while your big brother is around?" she suggested.

"I guess," Rin sighed. She did not want to stress Sesshomaru out or he would start treating her like a child and she did not want that to happen.

The two walked into the backyard where Kikyo greeted Kaede with a hug. Kaede and Rin then walked off to get into trouble more than likely. Kikyo spotted Sesshomaru, who was scolding Inuyasha about letting Rin out of his sight. Kikyo's family and Sesshomaru's family was at the barbeque because everyone was either friends already or just getting to know each other.

Kikyo spotted her sister speaking with Izayoi. She tried not to be rude and interrupt the conversation, but Midoriko saw her and greeted her. The sisters embraced and then Kikyo turned her attention to Izayoi. It was not their first time meeting and they had quickly grown to like each other, despite the fact that Izayoi knew that Kikyo had been carrying on an affair with Sesshomaru, but that all seemed like such a long time go. The trio struck up a conversation.

Sesshomaru was done with his brother after a while and was approached by his father. His father was finally all right with him being with Kikyo now that he had come to see she was an outstanding female. He accepted her as she was.

The barbeque was a good gathering. Somehow during the time, Sesshomaru had got stuck working the grill and Kagome made sure to get a picture of that. She also had to make sure to get a picture of Sesshomaru and Kikyo sitting together in a corner, trying to be alone for a moment. She got plenty of pictures of everyone getting along, looking like one big, weird, but happy family.

--------------

"I told you that would be fun," Kikyo said to Sesshomaru as they settled down into his bed. She had a deal with him to spend the night as long as he went to the cookout.

"It wasn't wholly unpleasant," he replied as he gathered her into his arms.

"You are too much," she stated in an amused tone. "It was rather funny to see you cooking, though. I'm sure you had fun because you didn't complain about it," she pointed out.

"I merely wanted everything to be perfect," he defended himself.

"Uh-huh," she teased.

"I do want everything to be perfect," he insisted and he placed a small kiss to her lips.

"Let's work on getting close enough to perfect," she remarked.

He nodded and leaned in for another kiss, a deeper one. They were working toward perfect and he was certain that they would get there sometime soon. After all, everything was working well between them, even better than before. They were in love and they could now express that whenever they felt like it, which helped a great deal, even though they were both against anything over the top and they did not do public displays of affection. Still, the fact that they could be open with their relationship worked wonders. They worked.

--------------

The end.


End file.
